(dpa) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro's "resignation marks the end of an era that began with high hopes but ended in oppression," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Tuesday.
Castro, 81, has led Cuba since 1959 but Tuesday said he would step down as president after a long illness, official Cuban media said.
Bildt said in a statement that while the leadership shift to Castro's younger brother Raul would "not lead to any immediate changes, we hope that the move to democracy will begin."
The Swedish foreign minister said that the people of Cuba "have the same right to freedom and democracy as all other peoples," adding that he hoped for new possibilities for cooperation between Cuba and the global community.
A year ago, Bildt criticized human rights violations in Cuba at a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The remarks sparked an angry rebuttal by the Cuban UN ambassador who accused Sweden of being "engaged in ethnic cleansing."