Cuba Relations News 2015: Top European Union Diplomat to Visit Cuba
The island country of Cuba may expect a visit from Federica Mogherini, the European Union foreign policy chief, later this month.
Mogherini, the highest-ranking EU official to visit Cuba in several years, said Cuba was now facing a very interesting period and that the EU wished to build on the momentum to "take the relationship forward."
Cuba is currently advancing negotiations with the U.S. to restore relations that have been severed for more than five decades. Mogherini's trip to the country is set for March 23 or 24.
The exchange with the EU and the communist country is being seen as a sign that Cuba is indeed strengthening its ties with the West.
Mogherini said, according to the BBC, "EU has been closely following the developments in Cuba and its relations with key international players, which create new dynamics in the region and in Cuba itself, and provide new opportunities for all."
In 2008 the EU lifted it sanctions on Cuba over the county’s human rights record. In 2014 the EU launched negotiations to improve relations with Havana regarding human rights, trade and economic relations.
Mogherini, who said her visit comes "at a crucial time" for those negotiations, will meet, over the course of her two-day visit, with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and other nongovernmental organizations.
In December Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced they had agreed to begin mending relations and talks between the two counties have been progressing since.
Cuban authorities will meet with Roberta Jackson, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin American affairs on Sunday.
This will be the third time Jackson will have traveled to Havana since the U.S. and Cuban leaders have agreed to try to take down ideological fences.
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