HAVANA – A scientific delegation led by 2003 Nobel Chemistry laureate Peter Agre is in Cuba to discuss research with the island’s officials, spokesmen for the group told Efe.

“The visit includes meetings with leading Cuban scientists and policy officials. It is meant to explore research issues and multilateral science venues that might be conducive to U.S.-Cuba scientific cooperation,” the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, said in a statement.

Agre is director of the Malaria Research Institute at Johns Hopkins University and president of the AAAS.

“The trip comes at a time when scientists in the United States and in Cuba have been urging expanded scientific cooperation between the two nations,” the AAAS said.

The association, an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science around the world, said the visit comes at a time when Washington and Havana have been re-evaluating their relations.

The delegation, which will be in Havana until Friday, “plans to visit the Academy of Sciences of Cuba and the University of Havana. The delegation also anticipates meetings with officials of the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment; the Ministry of Higher Education; the Ministry of Public Health; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” AAAS said. EFE