France wants ‘a privileged partnership’ with Cuba

By Progreso Weekly On Apr 21, 2015

Transcript of statement made Tuesday (April 21) by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius after meeting in Paris with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla (photo on top). Translated from the French by Progreso Weekly. The translator’s clarifications appear [in brackets].

****

I am pleased today to welcome the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.

This is our third meeting in a year but this is his first official visit to Europe and he decided to start it in France.

This is a visit that we consider particularly important and that’s why the President of the Republic [François Hollande] wished to receive this morning my friend and colleague, as well as the Minister of Finance [Michel Sapin]. And right after this interview and lunch we had together, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba will be received by the Prime Minister [Manuel Valls].

President Hollande meeting Bruno Rodriguez at the entrance to the Elysee Palace.

I was the first French minister of foreign affairs to travel to Cuba in over 30 years, some months ago [April 2014]. I had the pleasure and honor of being received by the Cuban president [Raúl Castro] and we both expressed the wish to strengthen relations between our two countries.

Today, this is the case. We work to strengthen this partnership by developing our dialogue in every area, about which we are both very much in tune and very clear. If there are difficulties, we address them together, but we were able during this luncheon to make an overview of both bilateral relations and international relations.

We maintain a dialogue of trust with Cuba and share the same concerns on numerous issues. We are each very attached to our independence and to a willingness to take concrete action to seek solutions to global challenges.

We cooperate in a number of areas. For example — this is not well known though it is very important — we have medical teams in Guinea for the fight against Ebola, which is an illustration.

Our economic, academic and cultural relations are also in full development. We attach great importance to this, as the President of the Republic will remember during his visit to the magnificent new premises of the French Alliance in Havana. Besides, I jokingly said to my Cuban colleague that we would have an exponential development in learning French.

The development of our relations is also a means to develop a closer dialogue with Cuba’s civil society and, in general terms, between Cuba, Europe and France.

Our discussions naturally focused primarily on the preparation of the historical trip — I think the word for once is not overused — that the President of the Republic will make in three weeks in Cuba. This will indeed be the first trip of a French head of state to that country. The visit comes in a positive context in several respects:

It is part of the strategy initiated by our government since 2012, to reinforce the French presence in Latin America and the Caribbean. Cuba is a key country in this area, with which we wish to develop a privileged partnership.

Seated at the meeting table: Bruno Rodriguez is at left background; President Hollande is third from the left in foreground.

The visit comes as Cuba is on track to be fully reinstated into the international environment after the historic meeting between presidents Castro and Obama. France — which has played in this regard a pioneering role that our Cuban friends willingly acknowledge, including pressing for the resumption of dialogue between the European Union and Cuba — welcomes this development, which goes into the annals of history and is beneficial for all peoples.

This new context removes a number of obstacles to the economic, human and cultural exchanges with Cuba. France has consistently opposed the U.S. embargo; it urges the United States to quickly lift the embargo. The same goes for the removal of Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, which is self-evident.

Finally, this visit takes place ahead of the Paris Conference on Climate Change, the famous COP21. I am convinced — we have talked about it — that Cuba, whose influence is recognized, can play and will play a very positive role in making the Paris conference a success. We have decided with my colleague Bruno Rodriguez to work “hand in hand” to that end.