26 April 2007….. A political consultation meeting was held in Havana on 23 April between the Foreign Ministries of Egypt and Cuba, according to the cooperation agreement signed between both ministries. Ambassador Hatem Seif El-Nasr headed the Egyptian side, whereas the Cuban side was headed by Cuban vice Foreign Minister for African and Asian Affairs, Ambassador Marcos Acosta. Ambassador Seif El-Nasr stressed the importance of firm coordination between both sides for the Non-Aligned Movement in the light of both countries' membership in the movement's Troika, stressing the firm  that coordination both countries'  missions in New York carry on in this field. Ambassador Seif El-Nasr reviewed the current Arab efforts exerted in the Peace Process, affirming that the Palestinian issue is the core of conflict in the Middle East region, and is linked to all the region's crises and problems. Seif el Nasr elaborated the broad headlines of the Arab Middle East Initiative, launched in Beirut in 2002, and re-adopted by the Arab countries at the Riyadh Summit last month, and the resolution of the Arab League to dispatch delegations to the various international circles to acquaint them with the initiative and obtain the financial support for it. The Ambassador pinpointed that the Palestinian willingness to negotiate for peace, in contrast to the Procrastination of the Israeli side. Egyptian-Cuban bilateral relations were also demonstrated, and both sides agreed on the importance of holding the first meeting of the Joint Committee during the second half of this year. Ambassador Seif El-Nasr said he will follow up this matter with the Minister of International Cooperation, Fayza Aboul Naga. In case Mrs. Aboul Naga was unable to fly to Cuba during this year, her Cuban counterpart offered to include Egypt within her tour to the region during the current year in order to hold the Joint Committee with Egypt. The Cuban side welcomed the signing of the cooperation agreement between the two Institutes for Diplomatic Studies. The Cuban side, moreover, expressed its aspiration to sign the agreement of abolition the diplomatic visas between the two countries in the light of its importance for both of them. The Egyptian side commented that the agreement lacked some procedural measures. Both sides agreed to discuss the date of establishing bilateral consular and diplomatic relations, and to exchange the documents of these relations. The Cuban side has evidence that  consular relations were established on 1948, whereas Egypt has some evidence that the diplomatic relations were established on 1958, which indicates  readiness to hold the ceremonies of establishing relations on 2008, whether on the occasion of  their 50th or 60th anniversaries of establishing those relations. Ambassador Seif El-Nasr stated that an Egyptian-Cuban Parliamentarian Friendship Association was formed in the Egyptian Parliament, and that Egypt hopes that a similar Association is established in the Cuban Parliament, considering the importance of Parliamentarian contact for the bilateral relations. Furthermore, Cuba thanked Egypt for the training scholarships in the field of agriculture through the International Egyptian Center for Agriculture, asserting Cuba's great benefit from these scholarships. It also thanked Egypt for Al-Azhar El-Sharif consent to delegate two professors to teach Arabic language in the Institute for Diplomatic Studies and the Arab Section of the Havana University after its inauguration in the near future. The Cuban side stressed their readiness to offer university scholarships to Egypt, mentioning that more than 30 thousand foreign students are currently studying in Cuba. They promised to allocate  a number of scholarships for Egypt during 2007, especially in the Spanish language, where the academic year begins in September. Ambassador Seif El-Nasr clarified that for the first time, three scholarships were offered by the Ministry of Higher Education to Cuba (two scholarships for learning Arabic language and a university scholarship), which are  an increase to Egypt's technical aid to Cuba.