The visit to Seoul of Carlos Miguel Pereira, general director of the General Division of Bilateral Affairs of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, the first high-level to South Korea of a representative of the island’s regime, ended without the expected results.
According to a statement from the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “The Cuban side, in particular, expressed its expectations to improve substantial cooperation in fields such as investment by Korean companies in Cubathe expansion of bilateral trade, agriculture, energy and healthcare.
But, according to the local media report Korea Heraldat the end of the dialogues, “the two parties agreed to continue communicating on possible areas of cooperation and shared the need to activate high-level consultations between the foreign ministries of the two countries.”
Pereira met on Wednesday with South Korea’s Vice Minister of Political Affairs, Chung Byung-won, in what were the first high-level talks in Seoul since the establishment of diplomatic relations last February.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry indicated that The meeting focused on expanding cooperation in various fields, including the economy, regional and global affairs.and the opening of embassies.
“The bilateral consultation between South Korea and Cuba is important as the first official meeting between high-level officials of both countries since the establishment of diplomatic relations, where they discussed various areas of cooperation,” the statement said.
“Both sides assessed the current stage of exchanges between the two countries, including development cooperation, economic cooperation, people-to-people exchanges, and sports and cultural cooperation, and agreed to further revitalize such cooperation through a close communication,” added the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
But it seems, There were no commitments from Seoul to undertake investments on the Islandwhose Government is eager to find benefactors that will allow it to face the serious economic crisis that the country is suffering.
In fact, Pereira’s trip was aimed at making a presentation at the Korea-Latin America Future Cooperation Forum 2024, a business event organized annually by the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2008.
The official https://twitter.com/cmphcuba/status/1800890696829944013 a meeting with Seok Kwa Hong, vice president of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). In his note, Pereira assured that he confirmed his “willingness to work towards expanding bilateral cooperation in its different modalities.”
The specter of the close relationship between Havana and Seoul’s neighbor, North Korea, hovered over the meeting between the diplomats. According to Korea Herald, “Before the start of bilateral talks, there was a divergence between Chung and Pereira over whether to include North Korean issues on the discussion agenda.”
Chung told reporters that the talks would cover the “general situation of inter-Korean relations,” but when asked, the Cuban official said that “I came to talk about South Korea,” emphasizing that the talks would mainly focus on the bilateral relations.
Another crucial point of discussion was the progress of plans to establish permanent diplomatic missions in the capitals of each countryan agreement that was first reached in late April.
“Both sides agreed to actively cooperate to ensure the completion of the establishment of permanent diplomatic missions in capitals as soon as possible, to serve as a solid foundation for the development of bilateral relations,” the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in this regard.
Chung said that South Korea plans to open a temporary office in Havana in the first half of this year to accelerate the opening of your Embassy. Diplomats from Seoul will arrive in Havana this week for that purpose.
For his part, Pereira said that the Cuban diplomatic team, which began its activities in South Korea last month, is working on the necessary procedures to open the Cuban Embassy in Seoul as soon as possible. Mario Alzugaray Rodríguez, deputy chief of mission of the Cuban Embassy in China, has been preparing for the opening of the Embassy since his arrival in Seoul on May 12, the report indicated.
