French President Francois Hollande arrived in Havana on Sunday, the first French president to visit Cuba in more than a century, cementing Paris’ lead in the EU rapprochement with the communist island.
Hollande is the first Western leader to visit Cuba since a surprise announcement in December by Havana and Washington that the former Cold War foes would move to normalize relations after half a century of bad blood.
Hollande arrived at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport late on Sunday night and was greeted by Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Rogelio Sierra, the latest leg of a whirlwind five-day tour of the Caribbean.
“I come to Cuba with great emotion because it is the first time that a president of the French Republic has come to Cuba,” he said on arrival.
“There are historic ties, deep ties, between the people of France and the people of Cuba,” Hollande said, applauding Cuba’s long-time commitment to independence.
The visit is aimed at boosting French and EU interests in Cuba. France is seeking to “be the first among European nations, and the first among Western nations, to be able to say to the Cubans that we will be at their side if they decide themselves to take needed steps toward opening up,” Hollande told reporters before arriving in Havana.
He said the easing of a decades-long economic embargo by the US would help Cuba’s cash-strapped economy.
“Cuba wants to move on to a new phase, a new period, a new time for this island that was victim of an embargo,” Hollande said on a stop in Guadeloupe, referring to the US sanctions in place since 1962.
The French leader said removing the embargo was key to opening Cuba up to the rest of the world, adding that despite the move toward thawing relations with Washington, economic barriers remain.
“There are still a lot of measures in place that block trade and business,” he said.
Several agreements are to be signed during the trip, though the details of the deals were not made public. Hollande said the accords would focus on improved access to Latin American markets.
Hollande has already made stops in Saint-Barthelemy, Saint-Martin, Martinique, Guadeloupe and will end his regional visit in Haiti today.
He was due to meet yesterday with his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, whom he last met with in December 2013 in South Africa at Nelson Mandela’s funeral.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the