ESTONIA: CUBA TITLE III INFORMATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L TALLINN 000782

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/11/2017
TAGS: ETRD ETTC PREL EN
SUBJECT: ESTONIA: CUBA TITLE III INFORMATION

REF: SECSTATE 158768

Classified By: Classified By: DCM Karen Decker for reasons 1.4 (b) & (d
).


1. (C) On December 6, PolEcoff met with Urmas Eigla, MFA
Cuba Desk Officer, to discuss Estonia?s ties with Cuba.
Eigla confirmed that the information he shared with us in
May of 2007 is still valid. Specifically, Eigla reiterated
that neither Cuba nor Estonia has any foreign direct
investments in each others countries and no bi-lateral
trade agreements exist between the two. In addition, there
are no official exchange programs between Estonia and Cuba
and there have been no official high-level diplomatic
visits between the two countries during the last six
months.


2. (SBU) Estonia has no diplomatic presence in Cuba and
vice versa. While the Government of Estonia (GOE) supports
the EU positions on human rights abuses in Cuba, it is not
active in monitoring events in Cuba. However, over the
last few months, GOE officials and parliamentarians have
participated in some Cuba related activities.


3. (SBU) In August 2007, Estonian Member of Parliament
Andres Herkel spent six days in Cuba as a member of an
unofficial delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe (COE). The delegation, headed by Matyas
Ersi of Hungary, met with Cuban dissidents and presented
the Sahharov award on behalf of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the COE to the political prisoners' spouses'
organization Damas de Blanco. The delegation also
participated in a weekly Havana protest walk, a move that
nearly resulted in their expulsion from Cuba.


4. (SBU) While in Cuba, MP Herkel also met with Cuban
opposition leaders Oswaldo Paya, Vladimiro Roca and Marta
Beatriz Roque. The group discussed the Eastern European
experiences with good governance and economic reforms. MP
Herkel commented after the trip that the most pressing
problems in Cuba are human rights violations and the
situation of political prisoners.


5. (SBU) In addition, in August 2007, MP Andres Herkel,
along with MP Silver Meikar, MP Mart Laar, MP Marko
Mihkelson, MFA Head of Division Juri Kahn and MFA/Cuba Desk
Officer Urmas Eigla, attended a joint IRI/Vilnius
University program on linking the Baltic experience to the
promotion of democracy in Cuba. Mart Laar gave the keynote
address at the seminar in which he proposed ideas on how
Estonia can offer knowledge and experience to Cubans.
PHILLIPS