French president's historic Cuba trip leads EU detente

French president's historic Cuba trip leads EU detente
By Alexandre Grosbois

Havana (AFP) - Francois Hollande will become the first French president
to visit Cuba in more than a century on Monday, cementing Paris's
leading role in the European Union's rapprochement with the communist
island.

The EU suspended relations with Cuba in 2003 over a crackdown on
journalists and activists, but it began talks to restore them in April
2014, aiming to persuade Havana to improve its human rights record.

It was under the French presidency of the EU in 2008 that political
dialogue was first resumed between Brussels and Havana. Raul Castro had
just assumed power from his brother Fidel and announced a series of
economic reforms.

"France has always been a leader in the European Union. The fact that
the French president is coming shows France's very important role in the
dialogue between Cuba and the European Union," Eduardo Perera from the
University of Havana told AFP.

US-based Cuba analyst Arturo Lopez-Levy said Hollande's visit was the
first by a Western European leader since Spanish Prime Minister Felipe
Gonzalez in 1986.

France, which has made its relations with Latin America and the
Caribbean a foreign policy priority, has along with the Netherlands been
a vociferous campaigner for the normalization of ties between Cuba and
the 28-member European bloc.

Europe's rapprochement with Cuba actually began nine months before the
United States said in December it was pursuing a historic thaw with its
Cold War-era adversary.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius made a brief stopover to Cuba in
2014, the first visit to the island by France's top diplomat in three
decades.

- Untying the 'ideological knot' -

Eleven years after the diplomatic break, EU members unanimously approved
in 2014 the opening of discussions aimed at achieving an "agreement on
political dialogue and cooperation."

Fabius's visit has been followed by trips from several French ministers.
According to various officials close to Hollande, this speaks to an
increasingly important relationship between the two countries.

"France wants to strengthen its ties with Latin America and, in this
context, we wanted relations to be strengthened in particular with
Cuba," Fabius said at the time of his visit.

With Hollande's visit, the first by a French president since Cuban
independence in 1898, France "is about to untie the ideological knot
that has limited the effectiveness and flexibility of foreign policy and
security vis-a-vis Cuba," said Lopez-Levy, an analyst from New York
University's Center for Global Affairs.

French officials recognize the importance of the EU positioning itself
politically and economically for when the US embargo -- in place since
1962 -- is eventually lifted.

Trade between France and Cuba is modest, worth around $388 million a
year, with the balance solidly in France's favor.

But one French official said there is no rivalry with Washington in
terms of France's relations with Cuba.

"It would be absurd to start a heated competition or rivalry with the
United States on relations with Cuba," the French presidency official said.

Source: French president's historic Cuba trip leads EU detente - Yahoo
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