Russian Prime Minister Welcomes Visiting Cuban President Raul Castro

Cuban President Raul Castro began his agenda in Russia with a meeting with Prime Minister Dimitri Medvedev, to review the course of signed agreements and promote new projects of bilateral interest.

Raul Castro was invited by his Russian peer, Vladimir Putin, on occasion of the official celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the victory over fascism, which many other heads of State and leaders of international organizations will attend as a guests.

This is the third visit of the Cuban statesman, since the first one held early 2009, as a President, when the two leaders signed a Memorandum on the principles of Strategic Collaboration between the governments of Russia and Cuba.

Later, during a three-day stay in Moscow, in July 2012, as part of an international tour, the Caribbean president talked with top Russian leaders, and assessed the course of the agreements aimed at expressing the strategic nature in the Russian-Cuban ties.

This visit takes place in the context of the successful celebration of the special session of the Inter-governmental Commission for the Economic-Commercial and Scientific-Technical Collaboration, on April 22, and resulted in a dozen of sealed documents in several fields of cooperation.

With that background, Prime Minister Medvedev stressed the comprehensive nature of relations with Cuba, a country that he described as one of Russia’s main partners in Latin America, after welcoming the Vice President of the Council of Ministers, Ricardo Cabrisas, visiting Moscow.

According to a note from the government, the executive head and the Cuban statesman will examine today the prospects of joint projects in energy, transportation, health and pharmaceutics, identified by the parties as the most promissory spheres.

Medvedev and Raul Castro talked in February 2013 during the visit of the president of the government to Havana, while last summer, Cuba was the first stop of Putin’s Latin American tour, before attending the BRICS Summit in Brazil.

With the official program for the 70th anniversary of the victory, on May 9, the Cuban president will lay a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and will attend the military parade at the Red Square, from the tribune of high-level foreign guests.

The island’s official delegation is made up of the Vice President of the Council of Ministers, Ricardo Cabrisas; Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez; Army Corps General and Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Leopoldo Cintra Frias; and ambassador to Russia, Emilio Lozada.