Cuban Ambassador to France Hector Igarza stressed today the good moment of bilateral relations, as evidenced by the visit French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius will carry out this week to his country.

"We are strengthening ties in the economic and cultural field, we want to increase cooperation and political dialogue, something we have been achieving through inter-ministerial exchanges," Igarza said.

Interviewed by Prensa Latina, the diplomat said Fabius' visit, the first by a foreign minister from this country in three decades, should also mean a renewed impulse of relations in all sectors.

We are interested in raising foreign investments, among them in the Mariel port, and continue encouraging tourism, Igarza said.

He recalled that about 96,600 French people visited Cuba last year, with a light increase in 2014 first three months, so they expect to maintain that trend.

France is 10 among Cuba's main trade partners worldwide, and Europe is fourth, he noted.

In statements to this agency, the ambassador also referred to the role played by this country in the process of normalizing relations with the European Union.

The diplomatic relations between both countries were established in 1902, but historic and cultural ties date back long before, when many French settlers with their slaves were settled in several points of Cuba during the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804).