By Innocent Odoh
Abuja
The Cuban Ambassador to Nigeria, Hugo Ramos, has said that Cuba and the Federal Republic of Nigeria have enjoyed fruitful diplomatic relations, which has spanned forty years.
The envoy said this in an interview with our correspondent during events marking 40 years of diplomatic relations between his country and Nigeria, in Abuja recently stressing that the ties have yielded benefits in political, economic and cultural aspects.
Ambassador Ramos said that currently, there are over 200 Nigerians studying in Cuban universities and over 100 of them are medical students.
He noted that the bilateral relations between Nigeria and Cuba are going well for four decades and both countries are deepening the ties.
“The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria visited Cuba September last year and his Cuban counterparts came to Nigeria last month. They had bilateral talks; they identified more opportunities of cooperation in different areas for example scientific research, particularly agriculture,” he said.
In the area of tourism development, the envoy pointed out that Cuba has a school that can train Nigerians in the development of the industry to link tourism and culture for productive economic purposes.
“There is lot of opportunity for bilateral cooperation. Tourism is another sector we can share experience and an opportunity for development. Nigeria is trying to develop its industry of tourism and Cuba is ready to help Nigeria technically in this area,” he said.
He added that Nigeria and Cuba can also benefit from bilateral trade in mining exploration of coal and other minerals.
On the crisis in Venezuela, Mr Ramos said the Venezuelan people will overcome these threats saying that “some opposition elements tried to destabilize the nation, but the Venezuelan revolution has continued to develop that country, Hugo Chavez did a great work for the people of that country and the current President, Nicolas Maduro is doing well also to continue to strengthen the country despite the challenges,” he said.
He added that Nigeria will overcome the security situation that besets the country.