The Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergei Lavrov, arrived in Havana this Monday to begin a tour of Latin America that includes Venezuela and Brazil, reported the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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The Russian Foreign Minister “arrived in Cuba today. This visit constitutes the ninth he has made to our country since his appointment to office,” the ministry said in a brief statement.
The strengthening of ties between the two countries “constitutes the greatest incentive at a time when both nations face intensified economic and trade sanctions by the United States and some of its allies.”said the Granma newspaper, the press organ of the only Communist Party of Cuba.
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Donald Trump tightened the embargo that Washington has maintained against Cuba for more than six decades, without his successor Joe Biden having changed things, while Moscow was sanctioned in February 2022 by the United States, Canada and the European Union after invading Ukraine.
The head of Russian diplomacy is scheduled to meet with President Miguel Díaz-Canel, and that This Tuesday I arrived in Venezuela to later travel to Brazil to a meeting of G20 foreign ministers.
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This is Lavrov's second visit in less than a year. Russia and Cuba have had a strong rapprochement since November 2022, when Díaz-Canel met in Moscow with his counterpart Vladimir Putin.
In the relaunching of relationships, Last year, both countries signed a dozen agreements in different sectors and maintained multiple visits by senior officials in Russia and Cuba..
“In 2023 our bilateral trade increased nine times compared to the same period last year,” Russian ambassador Victor V. Koronelli told Cuban state television in December.
In 2023 our bilateral trade increased nine times compared to the same period last year.
According to Russian figures, in 2022 the trade exchange between Cuba and Russia reached 450 million dollars.
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Among the main projects of Russian participation is advice on an oil field, located in the central province of Mayabeque, the start-up of a rolling mill in a steel plant in Havana and the modernization of a sugar plant in Sancti Spíritus (center).
This approach occurs when Cuba is experiencing the worst economic crisis in three decades, with shortages and an inflationary spiral, accentuated by the structural weaknesses of its economy.
In April, Lavrov thanked Cuba for its “understanding” in the war against Ukraine. While the island has maintained a neutral stance, with calls for a negotiated solution to the conflict, it has also refused to condemn the offensive..
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Following press reports in September about the recruitment of Cubans by traffickers to participate in the war against Ukraine alongside the Russian army, Cuba detained 17 people for the crime of “mercenarism.” Until now, the status of the judicial process of those arrested has not been reported.
AFP
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