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RUSSIA-LATIN AMERICA: Primakov Trip Shows Strong Interest in Region

Sergei Strokan

MOSCOW, May 28 1996 (IPS) - With a six-day visit last week to three strategically important Caribbean Basin nations, Russia’s foreign minister Evgeny Primakov was on a mission of discovery in a region long ignored by Moscow.

His May 20-25 journey to Mexico and Venezuela was designed to prove that Latin America was not an abandoned continent for Moscow, analysts here said. A three-day stay in Cuba reinforced ties with a once close ally sent adrift in recent years amid the major political changes symbolised by the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“Primakov was paying back old debts,” noted the national daily Izvestia. In a commentary the paper noted that Primakov’s predecessor, Andrei Kozyrev, had virtually ignored the region during his five years in office.

So many planned visits fell through the matter became a joke in diplomatic circles. And in interviews Kozyrev indicated Latin America was within the sphere of U.S. national interest — hence Moscow’s limited concern.

But Primakov told journalists in Mexico: “After the end of the Cold War, the concept of the ‘sphere of interests’ has become outdated. Russia has no intention to give up her position on the world arena, and Latin American countries are our key partners.”

The tour was nonetheless a low-key affair during which economic issues were highlighted rather than politics.

“Without much ado about geopolitical issues Primakov showed that Russia still has entrenched interests outside the post-Soviet space,” said Anatoly Sosnovsky, a leading research fellow with the Latin American Studies Institute of the Russian Sciences Academy.

He said the Kremlin had designed a coherent policy not only towards the ‘Big Brothers’ in world politics, “but also towards lesser nations, which in a short time become important economic partners for Russia.”

Primakov signed six documents in Mexico. These included agreements on cooperation in the combat against trafficking in illegal drugs and space exploration for peaceful purposes. Agreements were also signed on cultural, educational and sports exchanges.

Officials said these could be regarded as a start of a new period in bilateral relations.

“It is not only bilateral relations which stimulate the interest of Mexico towards Russia,” Primakov said in an interview with the national daily Komsomolskaya Pravda. Mexico understood the importance of diversifying its foreign ties and access to centers other than the United States of America.

“But at the same time I want to stress that my visit by no means should be regarded as directed against a third country, in particular, against the United States.”

However, during a three-day visit to Cuba, Moscow’s longstanding ally, Primakov criticised U.S. policy towards the island.

Relations with Havana almost froze in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now, there are signs of improvement. For the first time since the Soviet Union reduced its financial aid to the Cuban economy in 1988, concrete economic links have been established.

Oleg Soskovets, Russia’s first vice-premier, visited Cuba in October and signed a package of economic agreements. Primakov’s follow-up visit was highlighted by the signing in Havana of the Declaration on Principles of Bilateral Relations between the two countries with his Cuban counterpart Roberto Robaina.

The Declaration says both sides agreed to cooperate in combating organized crime, international terrorism, illegal drug, arms, and trafficking in cultural items.

Primakov also met Cuban President Fidel Castro. After signing a cultural and scientific cooperation agreement with Cuba, Primakov criticised the Helms-Burton law, signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton this March, which aims to discourage third-country firms from doing business with Cuba.

Asked how Moscow viewed the economic reforms being implemented by the Cuban government, Primakov said Russia would not apply any pressure on Havana. “Unconditionally, Russia views all reforms in Cuba as the business of the Cuban people,” he said.

“Russia-Cuban relations had their ups and downs but now they are on the rise,” Fidel Castro told journalists as he saw Primakov off at the Havana airport.

Relations with Cuba is a subject of ongoing controversy within the political elite here. Reaction to Moscow-Havana rapprochement ranges from satisfaction to sheer disgust.

Vladimir Bryntsalov, one of the 11 candidates running in the Jun. 16 presidential elections, said in a recent statement Cuba “should be given back to America”.

Evgeny Bay, a Latin American specialist on Izvestia, noted: “During the visit we didn’t hear a word from (Primakov) of how the problem of Cuban debt to Russia, which, according to some estimates, reaches USD 3O billion dollars, is going to be settled.”

Bay told IPS economic relations with Cuba could cause problems for Russia. He cited as an example a recent scandal involving the Russian company “Alpha-Eco” which terminated oil supply to Cuba in exchange for sugar cane.

But experts say Russia cannot afford to ignore Cuba anyway.

“In particular, Russia has a surveillance station on the island and a maintenance base of the national air carrier Aeroflot, which services its flights to the whole of Latin America,” the Nezavisimaya daily newspaper here said.

Primakov’s last stopover was in Caracas, capital of Venezuela. During the first visit of a Russian minister to that country, he signed a friendship and cooperation treaty and cultural and scientific exchanges protocol.

“We need Venezuela even because we can work together in the oil industry,” said Anatoly Sosnovsky. “For instance we can cease to ship our oil to Cuba and substitute Venezuelan oil for it, helping to revive flagging Venezuelan oil industry.”

There is already one example of successful cooperation between Russia and one Latin American Country – Ecuador.

“In a very short time the trade between the two countries skyrocketed from almost zero to above 200 million US dollars,” professor Karen Khachaturov, a well known expert on the region and a former head of the USSR-Latin America Society told IPS.

“Eighty percent of bananas are imported from Ecuador. And while one of private Ecuadorian companies services oil pipelines in Siberia, Russian investors finance geological surveys for oil in Equador.”

 
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