Hollande chalks up a Cuba first
HAVANA: President Francois Hollande began the first visit by a French head of state to Cuba, noting it was “special”.
Hollande was scheduled to meet Cuban President Raul Castro, deliver a speech and participate in an economic forum in Cuba as part of his swing through the Caribbean.
He also promised to talk about human rights in Cuba, always a sensitive subject in a country that represses freedom of assembly and controls the media.
The French president is travelling with executives from French companies including Air France, hotelier Accor and distiller Pernod Ricard.
Each of those three already operates in Cuba but they want to expand their business, with an eye to the potential ending of the US economic embargo on Cuba.
Castro and US President Barack Obama announced in December that they would restore diplomatic ties and seek to normalise overall relations after more than 50 years of confrontation.
The two leaders followed that with a meeting at a regional summit in Panama in April.
“I come here to Cuba with great emotion because it is the first time that a president of the French Republic comes to Cuba,” Hollande told reporters on arriving.
“And today it takes a special meaning after what President Obama finally decided.”
France has always maintained relations with Cuba and is one the largest holders of Cuban debt, but the renewed opening with the US is expected to have ramifications throughout the West.
European companies that do business in Cuba could have a competitor if the US ends the embargo. Obama, a Democrat, has asked Congress to remove it, but has met resistance from Republicans who control the Senate and the House of Representatives. – Reuters