Related videos:
The Cuban regime authorized Russian companies to manage industrial facilities in Cuba, a measure agreed upon during the XXIII Russian-Cuban Intergovernmental Commission held on April 1 in St. Petersburg, as part of a strategy to try to reactivate an economy on the brink of collapse.
The decision was announced on Friday, one day after Miguel Díaz-Canel received the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Serguéi Ryabkov, at the Palace of the Revolution, during the Inter-Ministerial Consultations held between both countries on April 8 and 9 in Havana.
Ryabkov was categorical during the meeting: Russia is one hundred percent supportive of Cuba. We fully understand the complexity of the moment the country is going through, and we stand by you."
The Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Román Chekushev, emphasized that the initiative to allow Russian companies to operate industrial facilities on the island aims to enhance Cuba's appeal as an investment destination and open new opportunities for business cooperation.
Among the specific projects is the assembly of GAZ and UAZ vehicles in Cuba.
The intergovernmental commission, co-chaired by Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Chernishenko, also included bilateral investment plans exceeding 1 billion dollars, in compliance with agreements reached between Putin and Díaz-Canel.
The backdrop of these agreements is the worst energy crisis Cuba has faced in decades.
The country has experienced at least four total outages of the national electric system, and the most recent outage left all 11 million inhabitants of the island without electricity.
Díaz-Canel acknowledged to Ryabkov that the fuel recently sent by Russia was the first and only fuel we have received in four months.
For his part, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez described the talks with Ryabkov as a strong signal, both in the Russian Federation and in the international community.
Filed under: