Russian MFA Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko Interview with RIA Novosti Regarding the Upcoming Visit to Russia of Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felipe Pérez Roque
Question: The official visit to Russia of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, Felipe Pérez Roque, will begin in the next few days. What is the program of the visit?
Answer: Felipe Pérez Roque will pay an official visit to Russia at the invitation of the Government of the Russian Federation on November 8-12.
He is scheduled to have talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, during which the sides will exchange views on a wide range of topical problems in world politics and examine major issues in bilateral ties. The visit is designed to further spur the political dialogue and strengthen mutually advantageous cooperation in different fields.
Question: How do you assess the state of Russian-Cuban relations at this stage?
Answer: For Russia, Cuba is a traditionally friendly state, one of our priority partners in the Latin American region. In their turn, Cuban authorities support the further strengthening of the positions of our country in international affairs and speak for the ongoing development of bilateral economic and commercial cooperation and for a trustful political dialogue.
Russian-Cuban ties are characterized in recent years by stable positive dynamics. Bilateral contacts are regularly maintained at different levels, particularly within international forums. I would like to recall that Cuba was the first Latin American country to be visited by a Russian President (in December 2000 Vladimir Putin's official visit to Havana took place). There have been eight reciprocal visits of the heads of the foreign affairs agencies since 1996. Sergey Lavrov paid an official visit to Cuba in 2004, and Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez made a working visit to Moscow in 2005. Regular are meetings between the foreign ministers of the two countries during UN General Assembly sessions (such a conversation was last held in September 2008).
Question: What can be said about Russian-Cuban interaction on the international stage?
Answer: We note with satisfaction that Havana invariably holds an active stance in international affairs; in particular, it is currently the temporary chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, within the framework of which it has been consistently defending the interests of developing states.
The similarity or identity of Russia and Cuba's positions on many world and regional problems, and the striving of our countries to actively cooperate within the various bodies of the UN are the basis for constructive cooperation by the two countries on a broad spectrum of issues.
The Cuban leadership was among the first to support the actions of Russia in connection with the attack by Georgia on South Ossetia and our efforts aimed at settling the conflict in Transcaucasia. On August 10 the Chairman of the State Council and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, Raul Castro, on behalf of the Cuban government came up with the appropriate official statement sharply condemning the Georgian aggression.
Our country has been a consistent advocate of normalizing the situation surrounding Cuba and of its full-fledged reintegration into regional and world processes. Russia annually supports the resolution "The Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States of America against Cuba" at UN General Assembly sessions, and adheres to the line on the inadmissibility of the application of unilateral measures of an exterritorial character in international relations.
The upcoming talks are designed to once again compare notes on and "synchronize" the approaches of our countries to the major problems of today. Serving as the basis for this is the desire uniting Russia and Cuba towards the realization in practice of democratic principles in dealing with topical international problems; towards the strict observance of international law, primarily the UN Charter; and towards the strengthening of the central role of the United Nations and its Security Council as a universal tool for the maintenance of peace and for resolving conflict situations, in particular, around Iraq and in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and in the Balkans. Also close are the sides' positions on the main human rights issues and on the key aspects of the disarmament process.
Both countries concur that such phenomena as international terrorism, separatism and religious extremism pose a serious threat to general security. Moscow and Havana are interested in fostering effective cooperation in the interest of countering the new threats and challenges of our time, including illicit drug trafficking, arms contraband and transnational organized crime. Our countries pay noticeable attention to the problems of international economic relations, to the monitoring of the financial architecture and to sustainable development. They champion imparting greater social orientation to the globalization process. In this context Russia and Cuba regard preparations for the upcoming Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus in Doha, Qatar, as an important task.
Question: What are the approaches of the Russian side to the further development of our cooperation with Cuba in the trade and economic field and in the cultural/humanitarian sphere?
Answer: Undoubtedly, considerable attention in the upcoming talks will be devoted to the buildup of economic and trade ties. The priority tasks at this stage are increasing further and diversifying trade (in 2007 its volume stood at about 300 million dollars, which does not correspond to the potential of our economies), and searching for new areas of mutually advantageous cooperation, in the energy, transport and other fields in particular.
For the accomplishment of the tasks facing the two countries in these fields and for the practical implementation of promising projects there are the Russian-Cuban Intergovernmental Commission for economic, commercial and scientific-technical cooperation (the latest session took place in Havana in April 2008) and the bilateral Business Council (it last convened in Moscow this past May). Questions relating to the preparation of the next meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission (slated for the beginning of 2009 in Moscow) will presumably be discussed as Felipe Pérez meets separately with the Russian co-chair of the IGC and Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who has already twice gone on working visits to Havana this year.
A traditionally vigorous area of bilateral cooperation is cultural and humanitarian links. In September this year Russia provided Cuba, which had suffered from the blows of the Gustav and Ike tropical hurricanes, with extensive humanitarian aid, accepted with gratitude by the Cuban leadership and population. During the period October 17-20 this year, the Days of Russia were held successfully in Havana, during which, the consecration ceremony of a new Orthodox church, which the Cuban government had directly helped to build, took place along with other events. The ministers will examine the state of Russian-Cuban relations in this sphere, including the elaboration of the question of opening a Russian Center of Science and Culture in Cuba.
November 6, 2008
