Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday will meet President of the Cuban Council of State and the Council of Ministers Raul Castro Ruz who is in Moscow on the first over the past 24 years official visit. They will have an informal meeting and official talks are planned for Friday.
“Relations between Cuba and Russia are excellent and the visit to Moscow will help strengthen and develop ties between our countries,” Raul Castro said in an exclusive interview with Itar-Tass earlier commenting on his forthcoming trip to Russia.
“What we expect from this visit? The strengthening and consolidation of what we have achieved on the path we have followed and to take one more step in this direction,” he said. “Both sides have accumulated rich experience, our peoples know each other very well, which makes a solid foundation for our mutual relations,” Castro added. “We hope these relations will be developing and strengthening also in the future,” the Cuban leader stressed.
He also said, “After the pause in 1990’s they (relations) began restoring when the then president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, visited our country in 2000.” “We consider this visit very important. This was the visit of the Russian leader that we name the second stage of our relations. We restored certain agreements, which were now being implemented.”
Recently, other very important visit was paid to Cuba – by President Dmitry Medvedev last November, Castro said. He stressed that both sides “held very important talks and signed important agreements in addition to the documents that we’re going to sign in Moscow.”
According to Castro, several days ago President Medvedev said friendship between Russia and Cuba “passed the test of time.” “This is the base of relations between Russia and Cuba,” the Cuban leader stressed. “I can justly say – today our countries maintain excellent relations. My upcoming visit to Moscow will continue strengthening and developing today’ s relations between Russia and Cuba,” he added.
