Havana, December 6  (RHC)-- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez welcomed the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Audrey Azoulay on Thursday.

At the meeting, the head of Cuban diplomacy said that Cuba prioritizes ties with the multilateral organization and is committed to making a permanent contribution to its work.

Rodriguez stressed that the joint work had allowed cooperation on a Caribbean scale, in particular with small island states on issues such as adaptation and mitigation to climate change, confrontation with natural disasters and heritage protection.

The minister thanked UNESCO for its special contribution to the annual United Nations report on the impact of the United States blockade against Cuba, as well as for the organization's permanent support for cooperation programs and projects, including scholarships for young Cuban scientists.

Azoulay, who will remain in Cuba until Sunday, praised the island's contributions in projects on education, ethics of artificial intelligence among others linked to the revitalization of the international body.

The French diplomat agreed with Rodríguez on the importance of the programs implemented to mitigate the vulnerabilities of the small island states of the Caribbean in the face of climate change.

This first day of Azoulay's visit also included a tour of the Santa Clara School, headquarters of the Caribbean-European Union-UNESCO Project, which will become a training Center in heritage restoration for specialists from the Caribbean, and her participation in the opening ceremony of the 41st edition of Havana's International Film Festival.

Azoulay participated in the closing session of the II UNESCO International School of Sciences, an event that brought together representatives from 19 Caribbean countries to discuss, from different working tables and participation methods, what young people can do in the face of climate change.