Cuba to Increase its Health Mission to Algeria

Cuba is set to increase its export of medical services to Algeria, as the two governments ended bilateral economic and trade ties talks in Havana, Cuba Tuesday.

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The Algerian Minister of Health, Population and Hospital Reform, Mokhtar Hasbellaoui, and the Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, closed the XXI session of the Intergovernmental Commission, signing a number of agreements in the areas of health, biotechnology, water resources, sports, agriculture, education and foreign trade.

The Algerian minister also highlighted joint business developments between the two, as well as the signing of a framework for increased collaboration in the field of health.  

The agreement comes as part and parcel of a long, shared history between the two countries, that extends back prior to Algerian independence.

In 1961, the representative of the Provisional Government of Algeria (GPRA) Lakhdar Brahimi met with Cuba’s late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, and Minister of Industry, Che Guevara.

As soon as Algeria won its independence from France the next year, it wasted no time establishing ties with Cuba.

From early on, Cuba provided military aid and medical assistance to the newly independent country.

The first Cuban health mission arrived in the North African country in May 1963 with 56 Cuban doctors. Today, more than 1,000 Cuban medical practitioners, work in health fields across the country as part of its ongoing health agreement.