Cuban president Raul Castro Ruz and his Panamanian counterpart Martin Torrijos Espino held official talks Monday at the palace of the Revolution in Cuba as part of a visit by Torrijos.

The main thrust of the talks was to re-affirm the positive relations already present between these two nations and to work on ways to strengthen these bonds moving forward into the future.

The leaders exchanged views on what is happening in each countries' economic, political and social areas during the worldwide economic crisis and climate change. Developing more positive bilateral relations and a sharing of opinions on multilateral issues was also discussed.

Torrijos also expressed a congratulations on the part of Panamanians to Cubans to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. Torrijos also expressed his thanks to Cuba for the help they provided training Panamanian doctors. The first graduates of this bilateral program are now working in Panama.

Raul gave his praise to the graduates of this program as well and applauded their agreement to work in the most remote areas of the country.  Raul also passed along a message of thanks to the people of Panama for the aid that Cuba received following the devastating hurricanes that rocked the island nation.