Cuba said on Monday it was resuming formal relations with all of Europe, ending a deep freeze in ties following a 2003 crackdown on dissidents and the firing-squad executions of three men who tried to hijack a ferry.
Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told journalists that official contacts had resumed with the Havana-based ambassadors of the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and the Netherlands, as well as with the European Union mission.
"Cuba has re-established official contacts now with all of the EU countries," Perez Roque said, according to <i>The AP</i>. Although diplomatic ties with the European countries were never severed, high-level contacts between Cuba and many EU members were limited for more than 1 1/2 years.
Last week, Cuba re-established contacts with eight other European nations, namely, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Austria, Greece, Portugal and Sweden. Cuba earlier had resumed formal contact with Spain, Belgium and Hungary.
Relations between Cuba and Europe chilled after Havana cracked down on the island's opposition in March 2003, rounding up and sentencing 75 dissidents to prison terms ranging from six to 28 years. Cuba accused the activists of working with the U.S. government to undermine Fidel Castro's communist system, something the dissidents and American officials deny.
European nations were also troubled by the firing-squad executions around the same time of three men who tried to hijack a ferry to the United States.
