Madrid/The Ilyushin needs more than 400,000 liters of kerosene for the round trip between Havana and Vietnam, where the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, arrived this Monday. Such an investment when the country is experiencing an unprecedented energy crisis indicates that Havana expects a lot on this scale – and perhaps another in neighboring China – in a friendly nation since the time of the war against the United States.
Although the trip has not been announced in advance or informed about the Cuban Foreign Minister’s agenda, there is no doubt that the current conflict with Washington will be the main topic of the talks. And its corollary can only be to seek more help from Vietnam, which has lately become one of Havana’s main benefactors.
Upon arriving in Hanoi, the chancellor met with both his counterpart, Le Hoai Trung, and the general secretary of the Communist Party, To Lam, and the prime minister, Pham Minh Chinh. The visit takes place a few days after the celebration of the Congress in which the nation’s top leader has been re-elected for the next five years.
The visit takes place a few days after the Congress in which the nation’s top leader has been re-elected for the next five years.
The landing, on Sunday, in Hanoi of the Ilyushin IL-96-300 of Cubana de Aviación with which the Government is recently transferring personnel to or from Venezuela towards foreshadowing the trip before the chancellor himself revealed it on social networks. The aircraft made stops in Gambia and Kenya to refuel, since this Russian four-engined 300-passenger aircraft cannot travel the 15,000 kilometers that separate Havana from the Vietnamese capital in one go.
“I deeply thank my dear comrade To Lam, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, for having received me as a special envoy of the Party and Government of Cuba, evidence of the historical brotherhood between both parties, governments and people. We recognized his involvement and strategic direction in the results shown by the current state of bilateral cooperation and economic-commercial relations,” the chancellor has written on their social networks.
It is striking that Rodríguez first introduces himself as a “special envoy of the Party” and, secondly, a representative of the Cuban Government. However, he did not say a word about the objective of his mission in Vietnam.
He was also profuse in thanking his counterpart, especially for the involvement of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry “in achieving the consensus reached between the leaders of both countries. We exchanged about the international situation and its impact on Latin America and the Caribbean,” he added.
The message was echoed by its counterpart, since the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that Vietnam is “deeply concerned about the new measure by the United States to impose additional tariffs on products from countries that supply oil to Cuba.” Pham Thu Hang considered that it is a decision that “will seriously affect the economic and social activities and the life of the Cuban people.”
In addition, he reiterated his condemnation of the embargo, systematically ratified in the vote on the annual resolution against this US policy that the Island promotes in the United Nations General Assembly, and urged “to take measures for dialogue and the improvement of relations.” The endorsement does not hurt the Cuban Foreign Minister, especially in the most specific part, referring to his meeting with the Head of Government, Pham Minh Chinh, with whom he boarded the “progress in strategic projects in sectors such as agriculture, energy and medicine production, which are part of the consensus reached at the highest level between the two countries.”
Last Tuesday, To Lam spoke with Díaz-Canel, one of the first leaders to congratulate him after his re-election. In his call, the president “highly praised the achievements of the PCV,” whose policies “provided valuable experience for the economic reforms currently being implemented in Cuba.”
In his call, the president “highly praised the achievements of the PCV,” whose policies “provided valuable experience for the economic reforms currently being implemented in Cuba.”
Last September, the Vietnamese Government delivered a donation of 15 million dollars to the Island, as announced after the Cuban president’s visit to the country as part of the Asian tour he made that month. On that tour, the president passed through China and Laos, countries with which he also concluded several agreements and to which he also promised special treatment for their companies, although those in Vietnam are, without a doubt, the most advanced. Agri VMA has been the first foreign company to obtain a land lease contract, specifically 1,000 hectares in Palacios (Pinar del Río), with the intention of reaching 5,000 in three years, in which they are planting rice that is much more fruitful than that of their Cuban colleagues, since its yield exceeds 7.2 tons per hectare, compared to 2 or 2.5 for producers on the Island.
In recent years, Vietnam has gone from being a country almost assisted by Cuba to its benefactor. In the 1960s, the Island sent “an annual aid of 10,000 tons of sugar, doctors and some advisors; and in the middle of the war, two poultry genetic centers and a beef genetic center were built,” according to former ambassador Fredesmán Turró in an interview with Cubadebate this September. However, the situation has completely turned around and now it is Hanoi that sends donations of rice to contribute to the subsistence of the Island’s population.
Its ability to adapt to an economy open to the private sector and maintain good relations with both the United States and the European Union and China has been very useful for the dizzying growth of its industries, in the face of Cuban statism and immobility.
