HAVANA -- Spain and Cuba have resumed official relations after 17 months of silence, the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia reported Friday. The Spanish ambassador to Cuba, Carlos Alfonso Zaldivar, met with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque in Havana Thursday.
Roque told reporters after their 95 minute meeting that the two countries had resumed official contact in response to Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's demand for "profound changes" on the island.
The objective of the meeting was to move towards a normalization of relations between Cuba and the European Union, Roque said. The European Union officially severed relations with and placed sanctions on Castro's government in June 2003 after a wave of a political imprisonments.
European ambassadors in Cuba are said to have reacted with surprise at the meeting, which came a week after the E.U. Parliament ruled not to change its policy on Cuba until all political prisoners were freed.
