Timmermans urges EU to improve ties with Cuba

Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans, who is visiting Cuba, said that the European Union should look again at its relationship with Cuba, BBC News reports on Tuesday.

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Timmermans, who is the first Dutch foreign minister to visit Cuba, said dialogue was the best way to promote change on the Communist-run island, BBC said.

The EU limits its political relations with the Cuban government in order to encourage multi-party democracy and end human rights violations there.

Timmermans was impressed with the Cuban economic reforms and said these were "encouraging".

In 1996, the EU agreed on a set of rules governing its relations with Cuba. The rules, called the Common Position, were rejected by Cuba saying that they constitute an interference in its internal affairs.