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Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Cubans Targeting East Timor


In December 2005, East Timorese Prime Minister, Bim Amude Mari Alkatiri, paid a state visit to Cuba at the invitation of the President of the Council of State and Ministers of Cuba, Fidel Castro.

conforming to a familiar pattern, Castro announced that Cuba is prepared to send up to 300 doctors to East Timor, in addition to the 65 already there.

This year, more East Timorese students will join the hundreds already studying medicine in Cuba. The Cuban government, will also send literacy specialists to East Timor to assist with literacy campaigns. According to the December 14th issue of the Cuban paper "Granma", Alkatiri called Cuba an "example of solidarity, providing lessons for the world with its selfless assistance".

Speaking to Prensa Latina, Amude Alkatiri highlighted the health collaboration and aid received from Cuba and urged increased ties in agriculture and energy, among other fields.

East Timor established diplomatic relations with Cuba in 2002, right after gaining independence from Indonesia.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't see what's so wrong with this. East Timor can get a cheap boost to its poorly resourced health system (most of the nation's infrastructure was burnt to the ground in 1999 by the Indonesian Military and militias).

Despite sending medical students to study in Cuba, Timore Leste's economic policies are quite strongly controlled by the World Bank and IMF so they aren't exactly going to have socialism.

7:02 PM  

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