By Dalia Acosta
HAVANA, Apr 17 1996 (IPS)

Facing the Shakespearean dilemma of “to be or not to be,” Russia, China and Vietnam appear to have opted to maintain their longstanding interests in Cuba rather than join the United States in isolating the Caribbean nation.

But the so-called Helms-Burton bill in the United States will sooner rather than later force Cuba’s former socialist camp allies to choose on continued strong links with Havana or the world’s most powerful country.

The Helms-Burton bill became law on March 12 and seeks to sanction countries trading with Cuba and condition U.S. economic aid on their cutting ties to the island nation.

“Business people will have to choose between doing business with (Cuban President) Fidel Castro or with the United States,” warned Dan Burton, Republican congressional representative and the bill’s co-sponsor, while visiting Santiago, Chile, last week.

Parliamentary delegations from Russia and China and a high Vietnamese official, meanwhile, came to Havana this week to discuss a strengthening of bilateral relations with the Cuban government.

After several years of tension, relations between Cuba and the former European socialist countries (including Russia, principal successor to the defunct Soviet Union) took an upward turn in 1995.

Russia was not alone in moving toward a rapprochement. Ukraine and Hungary maintained good relations with Cuba and the Czech Republic renewed its bilateral energy cooperation programs with Cuba earlier this year.

The formerly socialist countries regard Cuba as an important market for their products and technologies and an ideal bridge for access to the Latin American and Caribbean region.

Vitali Ivanovich Sevastianov, president of the Russian parliament’s mandates commission, led the Russian delegation that met with Castro this week, visited various sites of economic interest and toured the Cienfuegos nuclear power plant installation 336 kilometers from Havana.

The thaw in Russia’s relations with Cuba gegan with the signing of eight bilateral agreements last November to exchange petroleum for sugar, to continue to assist construction of the Cienfuegos nuclear plant, and to retain its radio listening base at Lourdes, on the outskirts of Havana.

Local experts say that Moscow is particularly interested in keeping the Lourdes base as an important bargaining chip in its relations with the Washington.

But Russia is also interested in finding a third partner to help finish constructing and share in the future output of the Cienfuegos plant — opposed both by the U.S. government and independent nuclear energy experts.

The Helms-Burton law requires the United States to reduce assistance to the republics of the former Soviet Union by the same measure as they assist the Cuban government, be it through trade, credits or economic aid.

The first chapter of the law titled “Strengthening International Sanctions on the Cuban Government” explicitly states that “economic contributions to make the Cienfuegos nuclear installation operative or to any military intelligence installation such as that at Lourdes are included.”

Moscow’s delegation to Havana this week coincided with Cuban Gen. Julio Casas Regueiro’s working visit to Moscow representing the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces minister.

In addition to rejecting the Helms-Burton law, Moscow stood by Havana Tuesday by demanding that the United States stop allowing violations of Cuban airspace that came to a head in February. The Cuban air force’s downing of two small airplanes belonging to the Miami-based anti-Castro opposition led U.S. President Bill Clinton to sign the Helms-Burton law sponsored by the most conservative sector of the Republican party, a measure Clinton had earlier opposed.

China and Vietnam, meanwhile, still raise a common socialist banner with Cuba and agreed to continue the contacts Castro initiated during his visit to the two Asian countries at the end of last year.

Local analysts say Castro was seeking to put an end to Cuba’s “ideological isolation” following the demise of the island’s political allies and rupturing of its trade relations during the first years of this decade.

China is Cuba’s second-largest trading partner after Russia and has awakened the interest of the Cuban authorities who see the Asian giant as an example of the viability of undertaking an economic opening within the socialist system.

During his stayt in Havana, Chinese National Popular Assembly president Quiao Shi met Castro and declared that bilateral relations were entering “a new stage of development.”

For his part, Vietnamese foreign trade minister Le Van Triet signed a bilateral “agreement for trade and other forms of economic collaboration” with Cuba that foresees a modest

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