Cuba cancels invitation to China to send warships to Havana
Cuba has reversed a decision made three years ago to host Chinese warships and hold joint military exercises in Cuban waters, Japan’s largest newspaper revealed today (May 20).
According to The Yomiuri Shimbun, the Cuban government in 2012 invited China to bring its ships to the Caribbean, an invitation that was confirmed during the visit to Cuba of President Xi Jinping last July.
Xi agreed then to send “Chinese destroyers with the latest missile technology,” the Japanese daily says.
The invitation probably was reiterated by Gen. Leopoldo Cintra Frías, who flew to Beijing in mid-December 2014 to meet with Defense Minister Chang Wanquan.
But in the aftermath of the Dec. 17, 2014 agreement between presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro to renew diplomatic relations, that kind of military relationship became awkward enough to be cancelled.
The newspaper did not say when or how the cancellation was conveyed to Beijing, saying only that it was “at the last moment, when the parties had to begin working-level consultations” on the logistics of the plan.
Obama has said he will remove Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism and has lifted several sanctions against the island. High-level talks on the reopening of embassies in Washington and Havana are going on this week.
The Yomiuri Shimbun cites “the great progress that has been achieved on the issue of normalizing relations with the U.S.” as a good reason for Cuba to recant its invitation.
No official statement has come so far from either Beijing or Havana. At present, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang is on tour of Latin America that will take him to Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile through May 26.
The four countries are China’s closest economic and trade partners in Latin America, accounting for 57 percent of China’s total trade with the region in 2014. Brazil is China’s largest trading partner in Latin America. Chile and Peru have free trade pacts with China while Colombia is looking at reaching an agreement with China.
Russian Navy ships have stopped in Havana harbor in the past, but only for brief periods, to resupply.
