Tokyo, Dec 8 (EFE) Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez has said that his country accords “special priority” to its ties with Japan and solicited the Asian country’s support regarding Havana’s relations with the US.
He made the statement Monday at a meeting with his Japanese counterpart Kastuya Okada on his second day of a state visit to Japan to celebrate the 80 years of Cuba’s diplomatic relations with the Asian country.

A spokesperson for the Japanese foreign ministry said that Rodriguez talked of relations between the US and Cuba and said that with the new US president Barack Obama assuming office “many things have changed’. Rodriguez also asked Japan to back Cuba in moving towards detente.

The spokesperson said that during the 90-minute meeting, the ministers discussed Cuba’s debt to Japan where Okada said the situation requires “obvious improvement”.

Rodriguez said the debt payment, according to the agreed plan, is impeded by certain factors like the global economic crisis, the three hurricanes that battered Cuba in 2008 and US economic embargo.

The ministers also discussed the possibility of a closer bilateral cooperation in fields such as medicine and, on a multilateral level, cooperation in the areas of fighting the climate change and reforming the UN.

Rodriguez said his country considers Japan a “worthy candidate” to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

The meeting, a part of the 10th Japan-Cuba Political Dialogue intended to promote bilateral relations, was held at the level of foreign ministers for the first time, the spokesperson said.

Okada on the occasion recalled “multiple commemorative events” and expressed his hope that these events might promote further exchange between the two nations.

Rodriguez reached Tokyo Sunday after visiting Laos and Vietnam as part of his Asia tour.