On November 8, 2024, NSFC Vice President Lan Yujie, met with Armando Rodriguez, Minister of Science, Technology and Environment of the Republic of Cuba (CITMA).

Dr. Lan Yujie conveyed President Dou Xiankang’s warm welcome and greetings to Dr. Rodriguez, and stated that Cuba was the first country in the Western Hemisphere to establish diplomatic relations with China, and the two countries have set a model of sincere cooperation for developing countries. NSFC has established a deep friendship with CITMA, and successfully renewed the bilateral cooperative agreement this year. NSFC hopes that in future, both parties can continue to maintain high-level exchanges, establish working mechanisms, define priority areas and research directions within the framework of MoU, and jointly support collaborative research and personnel exchanges in the areas of agriculture, health sciences, and environmental sustainability.

Dr. Rodriguez stated that science and technology cooperation is one of the important areas where the leaders of China and Cuba have agreed upon. NSFC has long played an important role in international scientific research cooperation. In addition to the key areas listed in the MoU, Cuba is also interested in fields as nanotechnology, biotechnology, new energy, and circular economy. CITMA is willing to continue deepening and extending bilateral scientific research cooperation and personnel exchanges, and also hopes that NSFC can participate in the multilateral Iberoamerica cooperation mechanism. CITMA sincerely welcomes the leaders of NSFC to visit Cuba next year.

The two sides also discussed implementation details of the MoU.