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• Politics and Government
• 07 / 03 / 2007

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque met Tuesday with Rahul Gandhi, a member of India's Parliament and grandson of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

During the meeting, the officials praised the strengthening of relations between the two nations and talked about the international campaign undertaken against the HIV-AIDS pandemic.

The meeting was also attended by the director of the Cuban Foreign Ministrys Asia Department, Alberto Blanco; Vice Director Miguel Angel Ramirez, and by the Indian ambassador to Cuba, Mitra Vasisht.

The Indian parliamentarian held talks on Monday with Fernando Ramirez de Estenoz, member of the Cuban Communist Party's Central Committee; the president of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarcon; and Cuban Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer.

On Tuesday, the visitor is scheduled to tour the Havana-based Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute, a Cuban scientific center of international renown due to its contributions in the field of prevention, control and eradication of transmissible diseases.

Rahul Ghandi became the first member of the fourth generation of the Nehru-Gandhi family to enter the world of politics in that Asian country.

The Indian deputy is the son of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991. His mother, Sonia Gandhi, is the current president of the government's Party of the Congress of India.

Cuba and India continue to play active roles within the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, of which they are both founders.

New Delhi and Havana established diplomatic relations on January 12, 1960. India is the second most populated country in the world with 1.1 billion inhabitants.

Source: Cubanews.ain.cu