HAVANA, (Reuters) – Mexican President Felipe Calderon met with his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, yesterday as the two sought to restore friendly relations and explore new trade opportunities after rocky times between their two countries.
Calderon’s office said the two men agreed on “the importance of the bilateral relationship, based on mutual respect, the observance of the norms of international law and the close friendships of the Cuban and Mexican peoples.”
They affirmed that undisclosed agreements reached during Calderon’s visit “open new opportunities for the development” of their relations, the communique said. It did not describe the atmosphere or length of the meeting.
Such mutual assurances of the desire for better relations were unnecessary for years between Cuba and Mexico, but their long friendship went sour after Mexico elected Vicente Fox of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, president in 2000 and have pretty much stayed that way.
He was the first leader not from the center-left Institutional Revolutionary Party in seven decades and took a less sympathetic line toward the communist island that did not sit well with then-Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Fox criticized Fidel Castro over Cuba’s human rights, then told him he had to leave a Mexican-hosted summit before then-U.S. President George W. Bush arrived.
Fidel Castro, now 85, taped the 2002 conversation and made it public, which created an embarrassing controversy for Fox.
Other problems followed and they continued under Calderon, who in 2009 angrily cancelled a scheduled visit to Cuba when the Cuban government suspended flights between the two countries at the height of the swine flu scare.
Calderon said on Wednesday upon his arrival in Havana that “in spite of our natural and different points of view about various issues,” an effort would be made during the visit to “take our bilateral relation to its best level.”
ECONOMIC CHANGES
The Mexican leader, making his first official trip to Cuba just seven months before his six-year term ends, also came seeking ways for Mexican businesses to take advantage of economic changes underway in Cuba, his office said.
“We want to expand trade and investment between Mexico and Cuba,” he said in his arrival remarks, including “bilateral cooperation in energy.”