HAVANA, Cuba – ELEVEN bilateral agreements were agreed upon during the January 19 special meeting of Cuban President Raul Castro and his visiting Argentinean counterpart Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

According the Caribbean360, the ceremony held at the Palace of the Revolution, Havana saw new legal instruments being signed in the areas of trade promotion, technology transference regarding foreign trade, and humanitarian assistance. The report states that another agreement also establishes the elimination of reciprocal visa requirements for diplomatic, official and service passports.

Memorandums of Understanding were also signed in the areas of prevention and mitigation of natural disasters, the peaceful use of nuclear energy, agriculture, fishing, forestry, food industry, biotechnology and rural development.

The two nations also signed an accord on the state of scientific-technical cooperation for the joint production of strategic medicines, the rational use of energy and the use of renewable energy sources, technical assistance in the areas of mining and geology, and the creation of a Cuban-Argentinean Bi-national Centre of Biotechnology for the development of medicines and vaccines.

Argentina restored its ties with Cuba in late 2003 after almost three years of conflict in relation to consular representation of Argentina on the island. The two countries have since worked to strengthen their diplomatic relations and continue to discuss closer economic partnership.