Thursday 20 November 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
CUBA-CHINA:
Strengthening Friendly
Ties
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA (IPS) -
Cuba and China
strengthened their
political and economic
alliance this week, at a
time when the EU and
Cuba have formally
restored relations and
the government of Raúl
Castro is forging closer
ties with the rest of
Latin America and with
Moscow.
Chinese President Hu
Jintao’s two-day visit
to Cuba, which ended
Wednesday, built bridges
between two nations that
are geographically
distant but
ideologically close,
above and beyond their
different political and
economic strategies.
As a sign of the level
of bilateral relations,
Hu visited ailing former
president Fidel Castro
early Tuesday. Although
he is still secretary of
the governing Communist
Party, Castro stepped
aside as president and
was replaced by his
brother in July 2006,
due to illness.
On prime time news,
Cuban television showed
a photograph of Hu
meeting with Castro --
the first image of the
82-year-old former
president released in
months.
On Monday, the Communist
Party’s official
newspaper Granma
reiterated Fidel
Castro’s oft-repeated
view that "no two
socialist revolutionary
processes are absolutely
the same," and each
country must adapt to
its own specific
conditions.
Raúl Castro, meanwhile,
showed that his
appreciation of China
and its political
process goes back a long
way, when he sang in
Chinese, in front of his
guest and more than 300
Chinese students, a song
dedicated to Mao Zedong
(1893-1976), which he
learned at a left-wing
youth congress in Vienna
in 1953.
As part of an
educational exchange
programme, 1,917 Chinese
students are currently
studying in Cuba,
earning university
degrees in Spanish,
medicine, nursing,
tourism, teaching
humanities and
psychology. "We are far
away from our families,
but they take good care
of us and treat us well
here," a 19-year-old
Chinese woman told IPS.
After their official
meeting, the Chinese and
Cuban leaders signed a
number of agreements,
which were added to
earlier accords
finalised by an
intergovernmental
commission, on Chinese
imports of Cuban sugar
and nickel, the
upgrading of Cuba’s
ports, and investment in
biotechnology.
"The meeting reaffirmed
the excellent state of
current relations
between the two parties
and governments…and the
firm proposal to
strengthen those links
further still in the
future," wrote Granma.
The agreements also
postponed payment of
several debts that Cuba
owes China and included
a 70 million dollar loan
for the renovation of
Cuba’s hospitals.
The aid has come at a
time of financial
difficulties in Cuba, in
the wake of three
hurricanes that caused
an estimated 9.7 billion
dollars in damages.
"It was a good trip with
good results, as the
visits of Chinese
presidents always are,"
Raúl Castro said at the
airport after seeing off
Hu, who left Wednesday
for Peru, where he will
take part in the Asia
Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum
summit.
This was Hu’s second
visit to Havana as head
of state. During the
first, in November 2004,
a number of agreements
were signed and he met
in private with Fidel
Castro, who decorated
him with the José Martí
order, the highest Cuban
government recognition
of foreign
personalities.
This Caribbean island
nation of 11.2 million
has had diplomatic ties
with the Asian giant,
home to 1.3 billion
people, since Sept. 28,
1960, although the
degree to which
relations between the
two countries have been
close has varied
depending on the stances
taken by their
governments at any given
time within the
socialist bloc.
Official sources say
ties have never been
stronger, with trade
exceeding 2.6 billion
dollars in 2007, 23
percent up from 2006.
That makes China Cuba’s
second biggest trading
partner, after
Venezuela.
Hu’s visit followed the
second trip to Cuba this
year by Brazilian
President Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva, in late
October, in which the
two countries reached a
strategic oil agreement,
and preceded a visit by
Russian President Dmitri
Medvedev scheduled for
late November.
Medvedev’s trip will
improve relations
between Cuba and Russia,
which has been invited
by Cuban officials to
become a major investor
in the energy, tourism
and mining industries.
In late October, the EU
formally renewed ties
with the government of
Raúl Castro, and Cuba
and the European bloc
resumed political
dialogue to overcome
differences and
reestablish cooperation,
which was broken off in
2003 after the bloc
imposed diplomatic
sanctions on Havana for
the imprisonment of 75
dissidents.
Havana has also
strengthened its
position in Latin
America with the Nov. 13
approval of its
admission to the Rio
Group, the main Latin
American mechanism of
political consultation
and coordination, which
was created in the
mid-1980s.
Invited by Lula, Raúl
Castro will travel to
Brazil in mid-December
to attend the first
Latin American and
Caribbean summit on
integration and
development, and to make
a formal visit to Latin
America’s giant.
Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez said in
Caracas that Castro had
received invitations
from Brazil, China,
Russia and other
countries, but that
Venezuela would be the
first to receive a visit
by him "in the next few
days." The announcement
has not been confirmed
by Havana.
The new dynamism of
Cuba’s foreign policy is
becoming apparent on the
eve of the change of
administration in
Washington, where
President-elect Barack
Obama has promised to
ease restrictions on
Cuba adopted by the
government of outgoing
President George W.
Bush. |
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