Havana, Cuba.-Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla welcomed the United Nations independent expert on human rights and international solidarity, Virginia Dandan Thursday, at the Cuban Foreign Ministry headquarters.

During the meeting, both officials agreed on the importance of the visit by the UN expert to know first hand about the Cuban experience and the promotion of the duties in human rights and international solidarity.

Dandan is paying an official visit to Cuba in response to an invitation by the Cuban Government, and she recognized the role of Cuba in international cooperation offered for more than 50 years, through actions abroad and in the national territory, in sectors as public health, education and sports.

Rodriguez said the Cuban international cooperation is based on the values of solidarity and humanism in the Cuban society.

He also referred to the role of international solidarity as a right of the people, and one of the requirements to reach an equitable and democratic international order, in comformity with the principles of the United Nations Charter.

The meeting was attended by Karin Hechenleitner, assistant of the UN international independent expert; Myrta Kaulard, Resident Coordinator of the System of the UN in Cuba; and Rodolfo Reyes, director-general for Multilateral Affairs and International Rights of the Cuban Foreign Affairs Ministry

Walker said that the caravan brings a symbolic donation of first-aid medicine in Cuba, as protest against the still-current restrictions of the US blockade.

The Caravan of Friendship began in April a tour across 50 US cities to give information on the Cuban situation and Trump’s attempts to reverse the recently started process of normalization of the bilateral relations.

Pastors for Peace was created in 1988 as a project of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), led at that time by Reverend Lucius Walker.