The Pentagon assured this Thursday that it has no information that Cuba has agreed to open a Chinese espionage center on its territory. The governments of the island and China denied the rumor.
Defense Department spokesman, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, noted thursday in a press conference that the newspaper report The Wall Street Journal Assuring that Cuba had signed a million-dollar agreement with China for the installation of this center “is inaccurate.”
LIVE: @PentagonPresSec @USAirForce Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder holds a news briefing at the Pentagon. https://t.co/utlnLV4UjD
— Department of Defense ?? (@DeptofDefense) June 8, 2023
“We are not aware of China and Cuba developing any kind of spy stations,” Ryder said, adding that the relationship between the two countries is something the US monitors “constantly”.
The Pentagon’s statements came shortly after the island’s government denied the information released by the New York newspaper.
Reactions from Cuba and China.
The Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, assured in a statement to the media that it is “unfounded information”, “slander” and “fallacies” to justify the US sanctions against Cuba and destabilize the island.
#OnVideo ? | Statements to the press by the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of #Cuba ??, Carlos Fernández de Cossio.
Available on our YouTube channel ??
— Cuban Foreign Ministry (@CubaMINREX) June 8, 2023
China also accused the United States of “spreading rumors and slander,” according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, who said: “We all know that spreading rumors and slander is a common tactic for the United States.”
Wenbin’s statements came out at a press conference in which he added that Washington “has been illegally occupying the Guantánamo base in Cuba for a long time” and accused the North American nation of “participating in hidden activities” in the Caribbean country and of “imposing an embargo” on the island “for more than 60 years.”
The spokesman recommended that the US authorities “reflect”, “stop interfering in Cuban internal affairs under the pretext of democracy and human rights” and “immediately cancel the financial blockade” on Cuba.
Cuba denies the existence of an alleged agreement with China to open an espionage center
The statements come at a time when the US media have assured that the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, will travel to China in the coming days, a point not confirmed by either Beijing or Washington.
According to the information that gave rise to these statements, the supposed Chinese center would allow the interception of communications at the regional level and for its installation Cuba would receive “billions of dollars” in return.
Efe/OnCuba.
