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The pictures are stunning to say the least. Four Russian naval vessels, including a nuclear-powered submarine, arrived in Cuba this Wednesday for a five-day stop, amid growing tensions between the United States and Russia.
A little after 10:00 a.m. local time, the submarine “Kazan” sailed into Havana Bay, showing part of its kiosk and dome next to which the Cuban flag was visible, AFP journalists noted.
Two hours earlier, the tanker “Pashin” and the tugboat “Nikolaï Chiker”, decorated with the white, blue and red colors of the Russian flag, were the first to enter the port, followed by the frigate “Almirante Gorshkov”.
Exercise in the use of rocket weapons
“None of the ships carry nuclear weapons, so their stopping in our country does not pose a threat to the region,” the Cuban Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces (Minfar) indicated last week. It is a visit that “strictly respects the international rules that Cuba adheres to” and that responds to the “historic relations of friendship” between Havana and Moscow, he specified.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated in a statement carried by the Russian news agency on Wednesday Interfaxthat before sailing into the port of Havana, the fleet carried out an “exercise in the use of high-precision missile weapons”.
A spokesman for the US military’s Southern Command assured AFP that the Pentagon was monitoring Russian activities “very closely”. “We are not surprised, given the long history of Russian stops in Cuba,” he added about this visit. At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez met in Moscow on Wednesday.
“Strategic” relations
According to a statement from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodriguez expressed to Sergey Lavrov “his government’s rejection of the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization towards the Russian border”, which, according to him, “has led to the current conflict in Europe, especially between Moscow and Kiev.” He also called for a “diplomatic, constructive and realistic solution to the crisis in the region”.
In May, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel visited the Russian capital, where he and President Vladimir Putin attended a parade commemorating the Soviet victory over the Nazis in 1945, amid tensions with Western powers over the conflict in Ukraine.
Political relations between the two former Cold War allies intensified after the meeting of the presidents of the two countries in Moscow at the end of 2022. Vladimir Putin considers relations with Cuba “strategic”.
During his last visit to Moscow in May, the Cuban leader wished Russia “success” in the war against Ukraine, Russian news agency Tass reports. The Russian naval fleet visited Cuba in 2019, at a time of high tensions between Havana and Washington after Republican Donald Trump (2017-2021) came to power.
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