United States and Cuba to Hold Fourth Bilateral Commission Meeting in Washington, D.C.
/United States and Cuba to Hold Fourth Bilateral Commission Meeting in Washington, D.C.
Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
September 29, 2016
The United States and Cuba will hold the fourth Bilateral Commission in Washington, D.C., on Friday, September 30. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Mari Carmen Aponte and Chief of Staff and Director of Policy Planning Jon Finer will co-chair the U.S. delegation. Chargé d’Affaires Jeffrey DeLaurentis and Deputy Assistant Secretary John Creamer will also attend for the United States. The Cuban delegation will be led by Josefina Vidal, the Foreign Ministry’s Director General for U.S. Affairs.
The Secretary places a top priority on deepening our dialogue with the Government of Cuba, the primary mechanism for which is the Bilateral Commission. The meeting will provide an opportunity to review progress on a number of shared priorities since the last Bilateral Commission meeting in May 2016, including public health, counternarcotics, and the resumption of scheduled commercial flights between the United States and Cuba. The United States and Cuba expect to plan continued engagements on economic issues, human rights, claims, environmental protection, agriculture, law enforcement, health, migration, educational and cultural exchanges, trafficking in persons, and regulatory issues for the remainder of 2016.
From The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba
HAVANA, 28 September 2016. Delegations of Cuba and the United States will hold the fourth meeting of the Bilateral Commission on Friday, September 30, in Washington.
The Cuban delegation will be chaired by the director general US the Foreign Ministry, Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, and the US by the Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere, Mari Carmen Aponte and Jonathan Finer, Director of Policy Planning, both the State Department.
the results achieved since the conclusion of the previous meeting will be reviewed, on May 16, 2016, in Havana and the new steps that both sides will for the rest of the year to advance the process of improving relations be agreed, including the realization of high-level visits in both directions, conducting technical meetings, adoption of new cooperation agreements in areas of common interest and holding dialogues on issues of bilateral and multilateral interest.
The Cuban delegation will reiterate the need for the blockade to be lifted, the Cuban sovereignty is returned the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo Naval Base, an end to the preferential migration policy towards Cuban citizens and other policies that affect deleting a Cuba, so you can have normal relations between Cuba and the United States.
