The Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla met, on September 19 at noon, with Republican Senator for the State of Tennessee Robert Corker, Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, who is visiting Cuba accompanied by two of his legislative staffers.
This is the Senator’s second trip to Cuba, as part of his interest in exchanging on the relationship between the United States and Cuba. During the meeting, they talked about issues relating to the current state of bilateral affairs and topics of common interest.
On July 11, 2018, a new round of migration talks was held between the delegations from Cuba and the United States, which were presided over by the Director General for U.S. Affairs at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, and by the Coordinator for Cuban Affairs at the State Department, Gabriel Escobar, respectively.
On July 10, 2018, a fourth meeting was held in Washington D.C. between authorities from law enforcement agencies from Cuba and the United States. This meeting is a continuity of the one held in the same city on September 15, 2017.
The purpose of these exchanges is to coordinate the bilateral cooperation in the field of law enforcement and to advance in the combat against the different crimes that threaten the security of the two countries such as terrorism, illicit drug trafficking, trafficking in persons, cybercrimes, among others.
The cooperation in health and science between Cuban and the United States is the main subject in a special issue of the MEDICC Review that was presented in June 25 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a prestigious scientific institution headquartered on the U.S. capital city.
On June 14, 2018, the Seventh Bilateral Commission Meeting between Cuba and the United States was held in Washington, D.C.
Even in the present circumstances, the Commission remains as an official dialogue forum for the direct discussion of differences and the follow-up on issues in which there is cooperation and mutual interest.
The meeting provided an opportunity to review the areas of exchange and cooperation where activities were carried out in the most recent months and to confirm potentials to move forward in other sectors.
On May 29, 2018, the Embassy of the United States in Havana informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba that, on May 27, an official of that Embassy had reported health symptoms as a result of “undefined sounds” in her place of residence.
Immediately, the Cuban Government gave top priority to the matter and officially requested the Diplomatic Mission of the United States that specialized medical doctors and investigators respectively, could interview said official.
Organized by Engage Cuba and McDermott Will & Emery, a congressional Cuba trade roundtable event took place on June 7 where Republican legislators of the U.S. Congress advocated for trade relations between Cuba and the United States, particularly in the field of agriculture, which, they stated, would be mutually beneficial and represent an important economic opportunity for the U.S. market.
On May 7- 11, 2018, experts from the National Center for Seismological Research (CENAIS) of the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA), paid a visit to the National Earthquake Information Center of the United States Geological Survey, located in Golden, Colorado, in the United States. The purpose of said visit was to identify the seismic records of earthquakes with epicenter in the Florida Straits registered by both seismological services.
The Cuban company Heber Biotec and the U.S. company Mercurio Biotec join efforts to bring Heberprot-P therapy to patients who suffer from diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) in the United States, upon approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
According to the press note released by the entrepreneurial group BioCubaFarma, the Cuban therapy is expected to lower in more than half the current figure of risk of diabetic foot ulcer-related amputations in the United States, due to the successful history of the product and the commitment given by Mercurio and Heber.