Minister Plenipotentiary Hon. Josianne Fleming-Artsen recently met with the resident Ambassador from Cuba Fermin G. Quinones on January 22 at a New Year’s reception hosted by the Ambassador in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Ambassador Quinones will be visiting the Sint Maarten House to have further discussions related to mutual cooperation between both countries.
On December 17, 2014, Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced that the United States and Cuba would restore diplomatic relations, which were severed in 1961. For more than 50-years the United States has had an economic embargo on Cuba.
“The resumption of diplomatic relations with Cuba by the United States is a first step in the normalization of relations between both countries. I will be looking forward to meeting with Ambassador Quinones in the near future to discuss the upcoming changes that his country will be going through.
“At the same time I will be informing him about Sint Maarten and look at ways our two countries can work together in different areas. I think there are many opportunities for Sint Maarten that we should explore together.
“Despite the embargo, the United States has become Cuba’s fifth largest trading partner since 2007, when then President Bush in 2003 decided to reauthorize the export of U.S. agricultural products to the island,” Minister Plenipotentiary Hon. Josianne Fleming-Artsen said on Wednesday.