POLITICS-CUBA/RUSSIA: Putin’s Visit Leaves Loose Ends

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Dec 15 2000 (IPS) - The search for a way to resolve Cuba’s financial debt to Russia was among the matters left pending for the relaunching of bilateral relations as President Vladimir Putin concluded the official portion of his visit to the Caribbean island Friday.

Cuban President Fidel Castro and his Russian counterpart reached the end of their work agenda in Havana early Friday, and then Putin headed for a weekend of rest at Varadero beach resort, 120 km from the capital. He is to continue on Monday to Canada for the second leg of his international tour.

Russia inherited the creditor role for Cuba’s debt following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the issue is one of the top questions for which the two nations must still hammer out solutions.

But Putin affirmed that Russia is willing to offer “the most beneficial regimen within the international financial mechanisms that exist in the world.”

Russian parliamentary sources calculate Cuba’s total accumulated debt with the Soviet Union at 27 billion dollars, but Putin limited himself to mentioning “thousands of millions” – without an exact figure – at the press conference Friday that marked the end of his official visit.

The Juraguá nuclear power plant is another of the unsettled problems, as the two sides were unable to come up with a plan that was satisfactory to both. Construction of the power plant was halted in 1992.

Moscow has spent 30 million dollars just in maintenance at the site in Cienfuegos, 336 km from Havana. “Our friends in Cuba are not interested in continuing it, but we must see what happens,” Putin said.

Cuba had originally hoped to resolve part of its energy deficit with the nuclear plant, designed with a capacity to replace 15 percent of the island’s petroleum imports, according to calculations in the 1980s, when Moscow provided the country with 13 million tons of crude annually.

The Juraguá structure now serves as a monument to the end of preferential trade relations between Cuba and the now-defunct Soviet Union, according to authorities.

Cuban officials say now that the ideal is to develop the national petroleum industry, which currently meets 40 percent of the island’s needs.

In the 1990s, the bilateral relations were characterised by stagnation in the political and economic spheres, and now the leaders must decide which commitments get top priority, Putin said.

As far as the military, the Russian president stated that the two countries are interested in maintaining operations at the Lourdes electronic intelligence centre, located in the outskirts of Havana.

The base, according to United States sources, provides Russia with 75 percent of its military information. Putin emphasised that it continues to operate successfully, and “in full compliance with international norms.”

Though it was not listed on the official itinerary, Putin visited the Lourdes complex Thursday, accompanied by Castro and his brother, Raúl Castro, minister of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.

The official agenda was, however, finalised by the signing of various accords aimed at strengthening relations, and the issuing of a joint declaration that underscores the two nations’ shared interests in the international arena.

Putin’s visit in Cuba, the first by a Russian president since the fall of the Soviet Union, took place on cordial terms, but stuck close to protocol and lacked the expressions of warmth made by yesteryear’s Kremlin chiefs.

Nevertheless, the Russian leader was received at the international airport Wednesday evening by the two Castro brothers, a gesture reserved for only a few diplomatic visitors to Cuba.

The agreements signed cover a protocol for commercial exchange from 2001 to 2005, which includes the freeing up of a 50-million- dollar loan to the island, renewing a credit line opened in 1993.

Putin and Castro also signed an inter-governmental accord to eliminate the double taxation of people with dual citizenship who invest or engage in commercial activities in both Cuba and Russia. It is an attempt to boost the development of bilateral trade, investment, sports and culture.

In another area, an agreement on legal assistance and relations in civil and penal matters will govern such questions as extradition.

In the health sector, where Cuba’s development has sparked Russian interest, the two presidents agreed on measures to improve scientific and technical collaboration and the training of specialists, and to pursue cooperation in medications, vaccinations and medical techniques.

“Our expectations were fully met,” commented Putin, who made the trip accompanied by his foreign minister Igor Ivanov and the ministers of Defence, Igor Segueev, of Health, Yuri Sheushenco, of Justice, Yuri Chaica, and of Information and Communications, Leonid Reiman.