During the Cold War, Cuba was an important client state of the Soviet Union
Havana:
A Russian nuclear-powered submarine and other warships arrived in Cuba on Wednesday for a five-day visit to the communist island off the coast of Florida, in a show of force amid rising tensions between the United States and Russia.
The Kazan submarine, which Cuba says does not carry nuclear weapons, was accompanied by the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, as well as an oil tanker and a salvage tug.
The Kazan and the Admiral Gorshkov, one of Russia’s most modern warships, can be seen near Havana, which is about 145 km from the tip of Florida.
The tanker Pashin and the tug, flying Russia’s white, blue and red tricolor, entered the port on Wednesday morning, an AFP reporter said.
The Cuban government announced that Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez would meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday, as the two former Cold War allies further strengthened their ties.
The unusual deployment of Russian armed forces so close to the United States – particularly the powerful submarine – comes against a backdrop of heightened tensions related to the war in Ukraine, where the Western-backed government is fighting a Russian invasion.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last month for the annual May 9 military parade in Red Square, outside the Kremlin.
During the Cold War, Cuba was an important client state of the Soviet Union. The deployment of Soviet nuclear missile facilities on the island triggered the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, when Washington and Moscow came close to war.
Relations between Russia and Cuba have become closer since a 2022 meeting between Diaz-Canel and Putin.
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