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Cuban and U.S.
officials held talks in Havana to discuss what more could be
accomplished during President Barack Obama's remaining weeks in
office, agreeing to arrange more high-level visits and technical
meetings.
The more Cuba and the United States deepen their detente, the
more irreversible it will become, analysts said.
"At the moment we are negotiating 12 more (accords) with the aim
to be able to conclude and sign a majority of them," Josefina
Vidal, the Cuban foreign ministry's director of U.S. affairs,
told a news conference.
The accords would be in areas such as seismology and
meteorology, she said, adding that Cuba and the United States
had already signed a dozen accords in the two years since they
agreed to normalize relations, ending decades of hostility.
They have also opened embassies, restored commercial flights and
opened travel options.
But some fear all that is now at stake, given Republican Trump
has said he would seek to reverse the opening unless
Communist-ruled Cuba gives the United States what he calls a
"better deal".
Vidal declined to comment on Trump's statements but said she
hoped his administration would recognize that the detente had
the backing of most Cubans and Americans.
"Cuba would hope the new U.S. government takes into account the
results we have achieved... that are backed by the majority of
the Cuban population (and) U.S. citizens," she said.
Cuba was willing to continue improving relations but "within the
respect of the existing differences and without having to make
any kind of concession to the principles in which Cuba firmly
believes," Vidal added.
In Washington on Wednesday, U.S. lawmakers joined more than 100
Cuban entrepreneurs to urge Trump to continue the thaw.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration is pressing American
companies to complete business deals in Cuba by then.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd and Norwegian Cruise Line said on
Wednesday they had received approval from Cuba's government to
operate cruises to the island.
The number of U.S. visitors to Cuba had jumped 68 percent in the
first ten months of this year to 208,000, Vidal said.
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; editing by Grant McCool)
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