Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Azerbaijan and Cuba to sign cooperation agreements

15 October 2009 12:50 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Victoria Dementyeva â€“ APA. â€œAzerbaijan-Cuba relations have been strengthened in recent yearsâ€, said Cuban ambassador to Azerbaijan Marcello Caballero Torres at a press conference on Thursday, APA reports. The ambassador said diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1992 and it has dynamically developed in recent years. He said Azerbaijan and Cuba were planning to sign cooperation agreements in nearly 10 spheres. The culture and tourism agreement was already signed and sport cooperation agreement will be signed in the next few days during the visit of Azerbaijanâ€™s Minister of Sport and Youth Azad Rahimov to Cuba. â€œAzerbaijani touristsâ€™ travel to Cuba will promote the development of tourism between the two countries. Minister Abulfas Garayev is interested in this issue. We hope that this sphere will be developed furtherâ€.

The ambassador said his country was interested in the energy cooperation with Azerbaijan and a working group was established in this sphere. He said 70 percent of oil equipments used in Cuba was produced in Azerbaijan. Ambassador Torres noted that there is no direct trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Cuba and Cuban goods are exported to Azerbaijan via third countries. â€œI hope bilateral agreements will also promote the development of trade relations between the countriesâ€.

The ambassador added that on October 28, the UN General Assembly will discuss a resolution on lifting of economic, trade and financial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba. Last year 185 countries supported the lifting of economic blockade of Cuba. The ambassador said there was new situation between the US administration and Cuba now and tensions existed during Bush administration were eased. â€œWe doubt that President Barack Obama can change whole system, but we are optimistic about the futureâ€.