“Cuba will participate actively and very constructively in relations between the EU and Latin America,” President Miguel Díaz Canel said in a statement to reporters at the end of a meeting with his Portuguese counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

 

On the first day of his State visit to Portugal, Diaz-Canel took the opportunity to thank the position of the EU against the United States blockade, on the 35th anniversary of relations.

 

“I have thanked the president for the EU’s clear position and particularly Portugal against the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States against Cuba, which constitutes the main obstacle to our country’s development,” he stressed.

 

Díaz Canel highly valued Portugal’s role in facilitating the development of Cuba’s political dialogue and cooperation agreement with the EU, which “has constituted an important mechanism to maintain and expand ties between both parties.”

 

Together with Rebelo de Souza, Cuban president stressed his wish that the EU continue to reject the US blockade and, at the same time, express its repudiation of Cuba’s inclusion in Washington’s State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

 

The Portuguese president, in turn, highlighted the intention to strengthen ties between the two peoples and cooperation in areas such as energy, the digital economy or health care.

 

Exactly a week ago, the news broke that Portugal wanted to hire 300 Cuban doctors for its National Health Service.

 

On Friday, Díaz Canel was received by Portuguese Assembly President Augusto Santos Silva at a meeting in which leaders of political parties and members of the Parliamentary Group of Friendship with Cuba participated.