BRUSSELS – The oldest son of retired Cuban President Fidel Castro on Wednesday discussed in Brussels with the European Commission different possibilities for cooperation in science and research between the European Union and the communist-ruled island.

Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, the scientific adviser to Cuba’s Council of State, met with the EU commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potocnik, and the commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel.

The talks focused on the “potential development in areas of mutual scientific cooperation” and did not at any time touch on political matters, an EU source told Efe.

The meeting, which took place in a “very constructive and cordial” atmosphere, follows the seminar on the possibilities for cooperation between the EU and Cuba that took place in Havana in March and was attended by Commissioner Michel.

Castro Diaz-Balart, who studied engineering in Moscow before the fall of the Soviet Union, at the beginning of June visited Russia with the same proposal to push scientific and cultural cooperation.

The EU and Cuba resumed their political dialogue and cooperation last October after five years without ministerial meetings after the 27-member bloc agreed to lift the diplomatic sanctions it had imposed on the island in 2003 because of the Havana regime’s imprisonment of 75 opponents.

This week, in the bloc’s annual review of relations with Havana, the EU governments decided to continue the political dialogue with Cuba, but they also noted the lack of advances in the area of human rights in that country. EFE