Havana, October 13 (RHC)-- Cuban President Raúl Castro is scheduled to meet Thursday in Havana with Prime Minister of Algeria Abdelmalek Sellal, who is currently on an official visit to Cuba.

Upon his arrival to Havana on Wednesday, the Algerian premier held talks with Cuban Parliament President Esteban Lazo Hernández, with whom he reviewed the state of bilateral relations. 

They agreed that this visit will contribute to joint efforts by both governments to broaden and strengthen cooperation ties in sectors like healthcare, the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology, agriculture and sports.

The president of the Cuban parliament recalled that Algeria was the country where Cuba sent its first medical brigade in 1963 – the beginning of a cooperation initiative that has since taken hundreds of thousands of Cuban health specialists to more than 100 nations around the world.