Cuba, EU hold talks on human rights issues

Cuba and the European Union (EU) held a second round of talks on human rights here in Havana, Cuba's Foreign Ministry has said.

According to a release on Tuesday, the talks between two delegations, led by Stavros Lambrinidis, special envoy of the EU on human rights, and Pedro Nunez, general director of multilateral affairs of Cuba' s Foreign Ministry, complement the bilateral agenda after a political and cooperation agreement was reached earlier this year, Xinhua news agency reported.

The two sides exchanged views in a "respectful and constructive" manner and discussed "several issues regarding human rights as well as civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights", said the statement.

The delegations engaged in talks with a view to opening up new spaces for opinions, deepening the knowledge of each side's realities and exploring bilateral cooperation on the issues they agreed on.

"Although there are profound differences on various issues of importance, the political will exists to talk about any topic with proper respect to the sovereignty and independence of the parts," said the release.

The Cuban delegation expressed the interest to continue the talks on the matter so it contributes to a "non-discriminatory" treatment of human rights and as part of the process of building better relations between Havana and Brussels.

The first round Cuba-EU talks on human rights took place in the Belgian capital in June 2015.

--IANS

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