Wednesday, February 14, 2007

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): India wants to strengthen economic ties with Cuba that already include the oil and biotechnology sectors, the visiting Indian foreign minister said, local media reported Tuesday.

Indian Foreign Minister Anand Sharma said the two sides were exploring new bilateral contracts and reviewing their relations.

Sharma heads the Indian delegation to an intergovernmental meeting that opened Monday.

On the opening day, Sharma underscored "his country's willingness to increase economic and cooperation relations" with Cuba "to raise them to the rank of the political relations," the state newspaper Granma said.

"Our two countries have worked together in multilateral forums and also have worked very strongly in mutual interests," the Indian minister said.

The head of Cuba's foreign investment and economic cooperation, Marta Lomas, said that the commission "will renew major bilateral accords, mainly in the areas of science and technology," and will analyse "proposals of bilateral accords with the aim of reciprocal promotion and protection of investments."

Lomas also called for compromise between the Cuban and Indian delegations to achieve results in their talks "in the right direction."

Cuba and India have close political ties in various international forums, particularly in the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement. Cuba has held the NAM presidency since September and has reaped thousands of dollars in bilateral contracts in oil and biotechnology.

India's state-run oil company signed a six-year deal in September with Cuba for oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.

Under the deal, India's Oil and National Gas Corporation (ONGC) will explore blocs N-34 and N-35, which cover an area of 4,300 square kilometers (1,544 square miles) in Cuban waters.

ONGC already has a 30 percent interest in six other blocs in which Norway's Norsk Hydro also has 30 percent interest and Spain's Repsol YPF 40 percent.

Officials of the state-run Cuba Petroleos (CUPET) say a total of six companies have signed exploration deals for 16 blocs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Contracts have been signed, in addition to those with companies from India, Norway and Spain, with firms in Venezuela, China, Canada and Malaysia.

Cuba and India also are developing strong investments in biotechnology and joint production of medicines.

A new plant for the production of the HR3 antibody, a human monoclonal antibody developed by Cuban scientists and used in the treatment of head and neck cancer, opened in April in India.

A factory producing Cuban vaccine against Hepatitis B has been operating in the Asian country since 2002.

New Delhi has cooperated with Havana through the work of some 300 specialists in agriculture, electronics, information technology and industrial textiles.

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