Ukraine and Cuba will set up a joint medical facility in Kyiv. Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla agreed this during a meeting in Kyiv on Friday, the press service of the Cabinet reported.
“Let’s create a joint medical facility in the territory of Ukraine, which would provide medical services to treat cancer and other serious diseases, using the Cuban medical technology and pharmacological agents,” Mykola Azarov suggested, and added that “the implementation of this idea in Kyiv will allow Cuban physicians to have their own window to Europe.”
The Head of Government instructed the Ministry of Health to contact the Cuban counterparts and work out all the necessary questions: “We will consider the company’s economy, the time of its creation, and during the visit of our President to Cuba in May a bilateral agreement will be signed.” According to Azarov, the Ukrainian side is ready to assume full funding.
The presence of such a medical institution in Ukraine, according to the Prime Minister, would allow the Ukrainians to get the appropriate assistance on site, without the need to fly to Cuba.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba supported the proposal of the Ukrainian government, saying this is a project they could work over. He recalled that Cuba has the experience of providing medical services at the international level, particularly with Portugal.
In addition, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla called for increased cooperation in the engineering and agricultural sectors. In particular, he implied the project with Yuzhmash (Dnipropetrovsk, eastern Ukraine) for the production of tractors. Cuba, the Minister said, is interested in a direct supply of agricultural products from Ukraine, because Ukrainian products mainly get to the Cuban market through intermediaries.
