Related videos:
Cuban Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Parilla made a "special" visit to Vietnam on Monday amid tensions between the island and the Trump Administration.
Parrilla met with his counterpart Le Hoai Trung, as well as with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the General Secretary of the Communist Party To Lam, according to separate tweets posted on his X account.
"I deeply thank my dear colleague To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, for having received me as the Special Envoy of the Party and Government of Cuba, a testament to the historic brotherhood between our two Parties, Governments, and Peoples," wrote Rodríguez.
"We acknowledged their involvement and strategic direction in the outcomes that reflect the current state of bilateral cooperation and economic-commercial relations," he added.
Vietnam and the Cuban regime
In recent years, Vietnam has become one of the closest allies of the Cuban regime, so this visit could be interpreted as a cry for help amid the suffocation following the recent U.S. blockade on oil shipments to Cuba.
In December, Vietnam allocated 50 million dollars to an agriculture project in Artemisa, to develop the value chain of cashew and other short-cycle crops over a period of 25 years, extendable.
Around that same time, donated 23.3 million dollars to the "Cuban people" in a campaign that included contributions from Vietnamese children who “broke their piggy banks,” according to official propaganda.
Also, it delivered four solar parks to Mayabeque to alleviate the energy collapse, yet another patch in a devastated electrical grid that forces millions of Cubans to live with endless blackouts.
Despite the wave of donations and investments, the impact on the population is still not visible. The regime has not explained how the millions received were used or what portion of the agricultural projects will be allocated to internal consumption. What is clear is that Vietnam has become a key support for the Cuban government at a time of financial isolation and defaults that have distanced China and Russia.
Filed under: