BRUSSELS, June 30 (Reuters) - Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina said on Tuesday Havana welcomed the opportunity to observe European Union talks with developing countries but would not accept conditions for strengthening ties with the EU.
Speaking to reporters after meeting European Development Commissioner Joao de Deus Pinheiro in Brussels, Robaina said the granting of observer status to Cuba at EU talks with 71 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations on a new trade and aid pact was "an exceptional opportunity to learn and exchange views."
EU foreign ministers, meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, agreed to Cuba's request to observe the talks, set to begin in September, on a successor to the Lome Convention.
But the ministers said Cuba would have to make "substantial progress" on human rights, good governance and political freedom if it ever sought to join the Lome Convention as a full member.
Referring to Cuba's observer status, Robaina said: "I think this will turn into an exceptional opportunity to get to know each other better."
He said it would be useful for Cuba to know all of the internal workings of the negotiations and it was good for others to know what was happening in Cuba.
Asked whether Cuba would seek full membership of the Lome Convention, Robaina said it was premature to say.
Later, speaking to a European Parliament committee, Robaina said Cuba gave a "strategic value" to its relations with Europe.
But he said relations between the 15-nation EU and Cuba could not develop on the basis of political conditions.
"To condition cooperation with Cuba on supposed needs for improvements in the field of human rights or on so-called democratic changes is, in our opinion, an unjustified and unacceptable treatment ...," he said.
Robaina strongly criticised an agreement reached between the European Union and United States in May aimed at ending a dispute over the U.S. Helms-Burton act which sets sanctions against investors in confiscated property in Cuba.
Robaina asked if it was fair for Europe to seek to defend transatlantic relations at the price of a solution which affected a small developing country such as Cuba.
"Doesn't Europe realise that this confused, contradictory, ambiguous and dangerous understanding establishes a very negative precedent in the sphere of international law?" he asked.
20:27 06-30-98
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