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Friday, Apr 13, 2007 Front Page India agrees to waive $62 million in Cuban debt http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/13/stories/2007041303361200.htm Diplomatic Correspondent Doubles number of technical scholarships for Cuban students - AFP [FORGING TIES: Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque gestures as he addresses a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday.] NEW DELHI: India has agreed to waive $62 million in Cuban commercial debt - $29 million in principal and $33 million in interest, officials in the External Affairs Ministry told this correspondent on Thursday. Interestingly, New Delhi's decision relates to debt that the Cuban Government owes private Indian companies, and has a special significance given India's growing ties with the United States and Washington's troubled equation with Havana. Message from Castro The decision came as Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma. A special message from Cuban President Fidel Castro was handed over by Mr. Roque to Dr. Singh. India also doubled the number of scholarships for Cuban students from the existing 25 under its technical cooperation programme. It will also provide 30 fellowships for Cubans at a wind energy research institute in Chennai. Full access Pointing out that Mr. Roque had been given full access to the Indian leadership, the officials pointed to New Delhi's interest in building an energy partnership with Cuba. Already, ONGC Videsh was working exclusively in two oil exploration blocks, and was a 30 per cent partner in six other blocks in Cuban waters. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Mr. Roque told presspersons that Cuba fully supported India's entry into the United Nations' Security Council as a permanent member. Supporting the entry of two developing nations from Asia, Africa and Latin America, he said the new entrants, too, should have the veto power since the permanent five members were loath to give up theirs. "We don't want a second-tier membership." Right to nuclear energy Warning that an invasion of Iran would have "terrible consequences," Mr. Roque said Cuba supported the right of every country to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. According to him, Iran, like any other country, had the right to master the nuclear fuel cycle, including the production of nuclear fuel - a right recognised under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Pointing to the double standards employed by Washington, Mr. Roque stated that while the Security Council was tackling Iran on the basis of suspicion, it had not even discussed the issue of the 500 nuclear weapons possessed by Israel. "Look at the double standards," he said, underlining the fact that Cuba stood for a nuclear-free world, including the dismantling of the existing nuclear stockpiles. "Illegal war" To a question on Iraq, he said it was an illegal war of occupation, launched without U.N consent, and had led to the death of five hundred thousand Iraqis. No solution was possible without the withdrawal of American troops. "All this has been done for the control of oil." On the formation of Left-leaning governments that objected to "neo-liberal policies" in Latin America, Mr. Roque said every country had the right to choose its own path according to the prevailing conditions. However, if the Cuban revolution had been overthrown, it would have, perhaps, taken longer for countries such as Bolivia, Brazil and Uruguay to bring Left-leaning governments to power. Copyright © 2007, The Hindu.
