MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th October, 2019) Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel is expected to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday as part of the three-day visit to Russia within his official Eurasian tour.
The presidential talks are expected to feature topics related to the Russian-Cuban strategic partnership in various areas, as well as the international agenda.
The meeting between Diaz-Canel and Medvedev, in turn, will be focused on the bilateral cooperation specifically in trade, investments, energy, industry, transport, agriculture, humanitarian and other areas. The sides are also expected to tap into the implementation of agreements reached pursuant to the Russian prime minister's official visit to Cuba earlier in October.
The official visit of the Cuban leader to Russia began on Sunday in the second largest city of St. Petersburg. He was received by Chairman of the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg Evgeny Grigoriev as well as the Cuban ambassador to Russia. On Monday, he held talks with St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov and visited the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery, dedicated to the victims of the 1941-1944 Siege of Leningrad during World War II.
The diplomatic relations between the two states were established back in 1902, with a brief pause from 1952-1960. In the core of the bilateral cooperation are the 1996 Declaration of Principles of the Russian-Cuban relations and the 2009 Memorandum on Principles of Strategic Partnership. Since then the high-level dialogue between Moscow and Havana has been maintained continuously.
Presidents of Russia have payed a total of three official visits to Cuba: Medvedev in 2008, and Putin in 2000 and 2014. In 2014, Putin's visit brought about a set of agreements signed toward the bilateral cooperation in international info-security, energy, industry, culture and health care. The Russian president had also held talks with Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and First Secretary of Cuba's Communist Party Raul Castro.
For Raul Castro himself, Russia in 2009 became the first official visit destination after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He paid another two official visits in 2012 and 2015, the latter one featuring his attendance of the 70th Victory Day parade in Moscow.
Regular contacts and exchange visits occur at the level of the foreign ministries as well. The foreign ministers of Russia and Cuba have exchanged a total of 14 visits since 1996. High level contacts are maintained between the parliaments and other ministries as well.
Diaz-Canel, in particular, visited Moscow in 2018 in his professional capacity of President of Cuba's Council of State at the time.
SCOPE OF MOSCOW-HAVANA COOPERATION
The scope of the bilateral Russian-Cuban cooperation is large, both at the level of states and regions.
The bilateral trade demonstrates a tendency of growth, having gone 33.7 percent up from 2017 to 2018 and another 1.3 percent in 2019. In the core of the Russian-Cuban trade is energy and metal industries. In particular, projects for the construction of four energy blocs at the Cuban thermal power stations Maximo Gomez and East Havana are underway, as well as the modernization of the José Martí Antillana de Acero steel company and of the country's railroad network.
Russia's exports to Cuba are predominantly machinery, equipment and transport means, foods and agricultural products, metals and metal goods, minerals, chemicals, wood, and paper. Imports from Cuba include foods and agricultural products, machinery, metals, minerals and chemicals.
The two countries cooperate in education and science, with the priority areas being astronomy, geophysics, agriculture, paleontology and material science. Cuban students have an annual quota of 100 spots with scholarships at colleges in Russia.
In May 2018, Russia and Cuba signed an agreement on the facilitation of visa regime that authorized a mutual permit for up to 90 days of visa-free stay. The agreement was signed by Ricardo Cabrisas, the vice president of Cuba's Council of Ministers and Minister of economy and planning, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Earlier in the day, the Cuban president and St. Petersburg governor outlined the potential new areas of cooperation to be pharmaceuticals, health care, robotics and automation, industries, as well as education and culture.
