Cuban Ambassador to Italy Jose Carlos Rodriguez and President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate of Italy, Vito Petrocelli, assessed initiatives to promote bilateral inter-parliamentary relations, the diplomatic mission informed on Thursday.

During a meeting held at the Embassy on Wednesday, Rodriguez and Petrocelli 'exchanged around a large thematic agenda and assessed several initiatives to promote inter-parliamentary ties and thereby contribute to the development of the bilateral relations between Italy and Cuba,' a note stated.

During the interview, the ambassador informed 'on the update of Cuba's socioeconomic model, the legislative schedule until 2022 and the implementation of the Constitution approved in 2019, as a result of a broad democratic exercise.'

The diplomat also referred to the progress of the Covid-19 epidemic in Cuba and the positive incidence in the use of medicines produced by its biopharmaceutical industry to treat patients.

He also explained the progress in clinical trials of the four vaccine candidates developed by Cuba, with which the island expects to vaccinate its entire population by the end of 2021.

On his part, Petrocelli expressed the Italian Senate's will to strengthen its ties with Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power, as an expression of the sympathy and friendship existing between the two peoples, the communique noted.