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HAVANA.- In the midst of Moscow’s escalation with the West over the war in Ukraine, the authorities of Cuba They confirmed that three ships and a nuclear-powered submarine of the Russian Navy will arrive at the island next week.
A statement from the Armed Forces published by the island’s foreign ministry reported on the “official visit to the port of Havana” – which will take place between June 12 and 17 – of the ships, after United States sources indicated the day before that they were closely monitoring a military operation of Russian vessels approaching the Caribbean.
It’s about the frigate “Gorshkov”the oil supply ship “Pashin”, the rescue tug “Nikolai Chiker” and the “Kazan” nuclear submarinestated the information note.
He added that the arrival “corresponds with the historical relations of friendship between Cuba and Russia” and that “none of the ships carry nuclear weapons, so their stopover in our country does not represent a threat to the region”.
Upon arrival, the Russian sailors will be entertained with the firing of salutes and then they will pay courtesy visits to Cuban officials and colleagues.
In the statement He did not give details about the type of maneuvers that will be carried out in Cuba and its surroundings or whether the Russian fleet will visit other countries.
Senior officials of the administration of the American president, Joe Bidenconsidered on Wednesday that The deployment seeks to show strength on the part of Russia in the context of an intensification of tensions due to the war in Ukraine.
Officials who spoke to reporters in Washington said “without a doubt” the naval exercise is part of an attempt by Vladimir Putin’s government to show the global power of its Navysince the Ukrainian military had said in March that Russia lost a third of its war fleet in the Black Sea in these two years.
According to these officials in the United States, despite the fact that Russia had not notified about the naval maneuver – which is usually done to avoid misinterpretations –the US Navy continues to track the movements of shipsalthough he recognized that all countries have the right to use international waters.
The political relationship between these two old Cold War allies has been revitalized since November 2022, when President Miguel Diaz-Canel He met in Moscow with Putin, who considers the relationship with the island “strategic.”
In his last visit to Moscow, the Cuban president wished Russia “success” in the war with Ukraine and condemned “the geopolitical manipulation carried out by the United States government and the threat of NATO to approach the borders” of Russiaquoted by the Russian news agency TASS.
Since this rapprochement began, various official and business delegations have traveled to both countries to promote investment projects. Another flotilla of the Russian Navy, which included this frigate, visited Cuba in 2019, at times of high tension between Havana and Washingtonafter the Republican came to power donald trump (2017-2021).
For more than six decades, Washington has imposed a trade embargo on Cuba that Trump tightened by including the island in its blacklist of sponsors of terrorism. Biden, her successor, kept her on that payroll and did not substantially change those sanctions. Russia also faces strong trade sanctions from the United States and the European Union (EU) after the war with Ukraine.
Since the 1960s, Cuba and Russia had a strong ideological rapprochement to the extent that the United States imposed sanctions on the Caribbean nation after the triumph of the socialist revolution. In the 90s with the fall of the bloc of socialist countries in Eastern Europe, the relationship cooled, but in the last decade it solidified again with a financial cooperation profile, as well as political.
Cuba refused to condemn Russia’s war against Ukraine, alleging the need for a peaceful solution.
AP and AFP Agencies
THE NATION
