Cuba's President Raul Castro (R) receives his French counterpart Francois Hollande at the Revolution Palace in Havana May 11, 2015.POOL/Reuters
French President François Hollande called on Monday for ending of the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, saying France "will be a faithful ally" as Cuba reforms its centrally planned economy and tries to re-enter the global economic system.
Hollande's one-day trip made him the first French president to visit Cuba since it became an independent country. Along with a large contingent of French executives, he is focused on strengthening business and diplomatic relations five months after the declaration of détente between Havana and Washington.
He visited former President Fidel Castro mid-afternoon on Monday, Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal told reporters.
Top diplomats from Japan, the European Union, Italy, the Netherlands and Russia have visited the island in recent months in bids to stake out or maintain ties with an island that suddenly looks like a brighter economic prospect amid warming U.S.-Cuba relations.
Almost all have been accompanied by business people interested in Cuba's push to draw more than $8 billion in new foreign investment as part of a broader, gradual economic liberalization. The delegations are also working to ensure that Cuba doesn't forget its old friends in what eventually could be a new era of increased business with the United States.
Speaking at the University of Havana, Hollande said "France will do everything it can to aid the process of opening Cuba and help get rid of measures that have so seriously damaged Cuba's development."
Hollande's address, in which he announced plans to increase academic exchanges with Cuba and mutually recognize the other country's university degrees, was attended by First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel, the man widely expected to succeed President Raul Castro .