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| Pedro Pablo San Jorge in Tirana |
The Ambassador of Cuba in Tirana, Pedro Pablo San Jorge claimed in an interview for News24 that diplomatic relations between Albania and Cuba are in good shape. He expressed the interest that the relations between the two countries to be strengthened at all levels.
The Cuban diplomat stressed that in Albania there are enterprises with the right potentials and with the appropriate competitiveness to open and invest their capitals in Cuba. So he said they are making invitations to senior government officials and Albanian businessmen to come to Cuba. In particular Mr. Pedro Pablo San Jorge praised the rapprochement between the peoples of Albanian and Cuba.
Below parts of the inverview for News24:
First of all, I want to thank all the New 24 team for this interview. It is a pleasure for me to come back to Tirana. I have been representing Cuba for 3 years as an ambassador in Albania and I can say that at this moment the diplomatic relations between Albania and Cuba are very good. We are working to further strengthening and expand these relationships and therefore we had meetings with the highest authorities of the country today.
It is in our interest to establish the relationships in all possible sectors as in presidency level, government level, parliamentary level. Also to work for some agreements we have already prepared, to further advance on this cooperation.
We want to use this opportunity to promote the opportunities that exist in our country for the Albanian business as a result of the openness that our government's policy has undergone in recent years to foreign investment. Because we think that in Albania there are enterprises with the right potentials and with the appropriate competitiveness to open and invest their capitals in Cuba. There are also other areas where there are opportunities to expand cooperation such as culture, sport, and especialy the health sector.
We see that there is a willingness and good availability by the Albanian authorities to expand this kind of cooperation. Also Cuban authorities have this opportunity to increase relations with Albania because these relationships are historical and traditional between the Cuban people and the Albanian people.
Do you think these relationships can be further deepened?
We consider that there are many opportunities and ideas to broaden given all these major changes that toke place in Albania over the last 25 years and also taking into account the changes that have taken place in our country. These changes before they happened kept us distant for a while but in these moments we see that there is a good will of both governments to strengthen these relationships. And for this reason, in the meetings we saw today, we co-operate in thoughts and ideas between the two governments, there are good political and diplomatic relations. There is a cooperation and exchange of experiences between the highest bodies of our governments.
We are making invitations to top governors and Albanian businessmen to come to Cuba. There is also a good will of the Albanian government to support these initiatives and I think all these efforts will lead us to an even greater increase in the cooperation between our two countries.
There is much talk about justice reform in Albania. Do you think this will be a successful reform?
I have been in touch with the topics that are being discussed and are currently being held in Albania and I think it is one of the topics of great interest both for the population and for the actuality in Albania and as ambassador in this country I wish to successfully pass this kind of reform and be done for the benefit of the people in the first place, in order to achieve satisfactory results in the justice sector.
What do you value more in Albania?
Really is a very interesting question. There are many positive things we have seen in Albania. It's a place that has impressed us, it has impressed us a lot, and this is about its history, its traditions, its culture, but if there is something we need to distinguish, that has impressed me, is the love and the closeness felt by the Albanian people to the Cuban people and to Cuba.
I think that this feeling exist in all levels, and we, as a political party have been welcoming delegations at ministerial level and we have perceived and seen this kind of love and closeness to the Cuban people because we are dealing with some relationships that have existed for many years, have been very deep relationships.
Many Cubans have visited Albania, visited Tirana, and many Albanians have visited Cuba, and this has led to the establishment of a very solid relationship. And it is our essential objective that I as ambassador strive to promote, maintain and preserve these kind kinf of love, sympathy, among our peoples relations.
How did affected the incident of US diplomats in Cuba and the expulsion of Cuban diplomats from Washington in Cuba-US relations?
It is clear that this event is widely spread internationally and in many cases only the American version is heard or seen. But I want to explain to you from our country, based on the information received by the Cuban authorities about the existence of a mysterious acoustic disease that caused some of the symptoms of hearing an American diplomatic group accredited in Havana. Our country offered all its co-operation and commitment to investigate the causes that caused these problems, even invited American specialists and officials to come to our country to investigate what they were talking about. In these moments, investigations are continuing.
Given the limited information provided by the US Department of State, I want to clarify that Cuba is one of the countries that strictly meets all the agreements and all Vienna agreement points, and in particular for the diplomatic personnel accredited in Havana, and has always taken all the measures to protect all diplomatic corps in Havana. I want to tell you that we still have no conclusive conclusions about this investigation, but even though we have no conclusions yet, the US government took the decision to oust some of its diplomats who were accredited in Havana, and also made the decision to oust 15 Cuban diplomats from the United States.
We, through the Foreign Minister said that it is a hasty decision, unbased in conclusions, is a unilateral decision by the US government and that will certainly have consequences or influence on our bilateral relations. However, the Cuban government and the Cuban foreign ministry have in many cases expressed their opinion or readiness and willingness to continue research with US authorities to cooperate in various sectors where there are common interests. Because as neighboring countries we are, there are many sectors that are of interest to both countries and that over the last few years many working groups have been created in relation to these sectors of common interest.
There has been a growing interest in cultural, academic, and academic exchanges with the United States, and even during the last two years there have been ongoing political consultations with the US government in both Havana and Washington. Many US companies have expressed their interest in making investments in Cuba, preliminary projects have been signed that will be implemented after the US blockade of Cuba is completely eliminated, so there is a great potential in the relationship between the two governments and our countries, and of course that last unilateral decision will have a negative impact on our bilateral relations./Oculus News