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HAVANA.- One Canadian Navy patrol boat arrived in Havana early on Friday, a few hours after The United States announced that a fast attack submarine had docked at its Guantánamo naval base in Cubaboth following the arrival of Russian warships to the island earlier this week.
The confluence of Russian, Canadian and American ships in Cuba – just 160 kilometers from Florida – served to remember the old tension of the Cold War and the damaged ties between Russia and Western countries due to the ukrainian war.
However, Both the United States and Cuba have said that Russian warships do not pose a threat to the region. Russia also described the arrival of its warships in Cuba as routine.
The frigate Almirante Gorshkov and the nuclear-powered submarine Kazán sailed into Havana port on Wednesday after conducting a training with “high precision missiles” in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Canadian patrol vessel Margaret Brooke began maneuvers early on Friday to enter the port of Havana, as part of what the Canadian Joint Operations Command called “a port visit (…) in recognition of the long bilateral relationship between Canada and Cuba”.
Hours before, the United States Southern Command said that the fast attack submarine Helena had arrived on a routine port visit in the Guantanamo Bay, a US naval base in the southeastern end of the island, about 850 kilometers from Havana.
”The location and transit of the ship were previously planned”the Southern Command said in
Russia and Cuba were close allies under the former Soviet Union and tension with Washington over communism in its “backyard” reached its peak with the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. Moscow, which has maintained ties with Havana, questioned this week the West’s apparent nervousness over warships. The Russian warships are expected to remain in Havana port until June 17.
Reuters Agency
THE NATION
