News

Specialists from 25 countries are debating today in the Cuban capital the use of sugar industry derivatives in animal feed at the 10th International Congress on Sugar and Derivatives.

Cuba could have some 20 billion barrels of oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico, affirmed Rafael Tenreyro, director of the state-run Cubapetroleo (Cupet) Company. The official said the first well will be opened by Spain’s Repsol Company in mid 2009, reported IPS news service. These reserves would turn the island into an oil-exporting country.

Cuba currently produces 60,000 barrels of oil a day used mainly for generating electricity. It depends on Venezuela for an additional 93,000 barrels a day, which it receives at preferential rates in exchange for the services of thousands of Cuban doctors working in Venezuela, reported the BBC.

France favors a “recovery in European cooperation with Cuba”, affirmed today in Paris a spokesperson of that country’s Foreign Ministry. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is heading the European delegation that met today with his Cuban counterpart Felipe Perez Roque to renew the bilateral political dialogue, which was interrupted in 2003.

Cuba and the European Union (EU) held today in Paris the first ministerial summit since the cooling of bilateral relations in 2003, reported the French press. According to sources from the French Foreign Ministry, the subjects to be dealt with during the dialogue should include cooperation to prevent and respond to natural disasters, human rights, food security and the international financial crisis.

The Spanish government accepted Cuba’s request to restructure its commercial debt, for which a delegation from the island will travel next week to Madrid. Spain also offered a new line of credit of between 50 and 100 million euros. Spain is Cuba’s third-largest trading partner after Venezuela and China.

The Spanish government announced it will donate 24.5 million euros to Cuba to help over next two years with the reconstruction effort in the areas affected by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, announced Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos during a press conference in Madrid. Cuba’s Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque is on an official visit to Spain and met Tuesday with King Juan Carlos and Moratinos.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque began an official visit Monday to Spain as the guest of his counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos. The visit is taking place during the process of normalization of political relations between Cuba and the European Union.

More than 135,000 persons are receiving international aid in the areas devastated by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, Cuban official sources told IPS news service. A total of 2,500 tons of donations have arrived in the island to help alleviate the difficult situation of the country, which suffered five billion dollars’ worth of losses.u

Thousands of persons have been mobilized in the far eastern province of Guantánamo to harvest coffee beans in the next weeks, reported the local press. The beans have rapidly ripened after the rainfall caused by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav and the high temperatures in that region. Cuba is known for its excellent coffee which is consumed locally and exported.

Cuba and Mexico held a new round of talks in Havana in an effort to reach a migratory agreement that the governments of both countries hope to sign during Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque’s visit to the Mexican capital, scheduled for October 19-21. The negotiations to give a legal and orderly framework to ordinary emigration began last April in Mexico City.