HAVANA: Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has announced that he is heading to Russia on a “working visit,” as old allies Cuba and Russia strengthen relations under a recently initiated reconciliation, western media reported on Tuesday.
Havana and Moscow have drawn closer since 2022, with an increasingly isolated Russia seeking new trading and diplomatic partners. The Cuban presidency said in a statement that the president left for Moscow this evening.
Diaz-Canel said on social media that he was making the “working visit to Moscow to address the bilateral agenda priorities after the reelection of President Vladimir Putin.” Earlier, Diaz-Canel visited Moscow in 2022.
In February, Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov was in Cuba for the second time in less than a year.
Cuba has maintained a neutral position on the conflict in Ukraine, calling for a negotiated solution to end the war, and has denied to denounce the Russian operation.
Under US embargo since 1962, Havana is facing its worst economic crisis in last three decades, and has received Russian oil to aid ease a crushing shortage of fuel.
Cuba and ex-USSR were close partners during the Cold War, but that cooperation finished abruptly in 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet alliance. As they work on repairing relations, the allies have inked cooperation deals in the areas of information technology, construction, sugar, banking, tourism and transport.
