Reconfirming Cuba’s close economic ties with China at a time of political change both in Beijing and Havana, Raúl Castro was in Beijing for a three-day visit, the first since he took office in 2008. This was followed by two-day visits to Vietnam and Russia, where Castro arrived on July 10. Both countries are close political and economic partners.
In China, Castro met with both President Hu Jintao and the man likely to succeed Hu, Vice President Xi Jinping. Castro’s visit came weeks before the Asian giant, Cuba’s second largest trade partner and foreign investor, will stage a Communist Party congress that is expected to execute a change at the top, possibly the largest in a generation.
In an indication that the visits are heavy on economic issues, Castro’s delegation includes Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, the vice president in charge of strategic commercial relations. Trade between Cuba and China rose by a hefty 6.4 percent in 2011 to nearly $2 billion, foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told journalists at a press conference.
The Cuban visit to China was expected to “deepen about 10 agreements reached last year” when Xi Jinping visited Havana, the Cuban foreign ministry said. At the time, the two countries signed 13 agreements, including one about Chinese funding for the $6 billion expansion of a refinery, several agreements involving Chinese state oil company CNPC, the extension of fresh loans, as well as a five-year framework cooperation plan.
Castro’s visit “will set the pace for a great boost in the exchanges and cooperation between both nations, bringing these friendship ties to a higher level,” Hu said, according to Granma, after emerging from a private meeting with Castro at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and witnessing the signing of eight cooperation agreements by Cabrisas and Chinese Trade Minister Chen Deming.
They include an economic-technical agreement funded with a Chinese donation, another agreement for an interest-free loan, one on an exchange of financial notes, one for digital TV equipment, a training agreement between the customs administrations of both nations, one about agriculture, and a loan from the Chinese development bank for the renovation and modernization of medical institutions in Cuba. No details were immediately available.
Hu called on the two countries to expand trade and economic cooperation, especially in trade, energy, infrastructure construction, agriculture and biotechnology, and to encourage two-way investment, according to Xinhua.
The agreements signed last year include a letter of intent for a doubling of the Cienfuegos refinery’s capacity from 65,000 to 150,000 barrels per day. According to Reuters, this is a three-way agreement between Cuvenpetrol, the Cuban-Venezuelan joint venture that owns the refinery; China Huanqiu Contracting & Engineering Corp., a subsidiary of state oil company CNPC; and the Italian subsidiary of Technip, a French oil engineering company. Another letter of intent by Huanqiu and Cuvenpetrol was for the construction of a regasification plant near the refinery in Cienfuegos that would process liquefied natural gas from Venezuela to be used by power plants in Cuba. A third letter of intent was about an expansion of the Port of Cienfuegos and dredging. All these projects are expected to be financed by China’s Export-Import Bank, using Venezuelan oil as collateral, according to Reuters.
Last year’s agreements with CNPC, according to oil industry observers, included the lease of five offshore blocks in Cuban waters. CNPC never made an announcement; Chinese involvement in offshore drilling in Cuba is a politically sensitive issue between Beijing and Washington.
Neither government mentioned the oil and petrochemical agreements during Castro’s visit.
Cuba is also a joint venture partner in a luxury hotel in Shanghai, plans to build a hotel at Marina Hemingway in Havana with Chinese participation, and has bought Chinese wind generators and hydropower technology.
A bilateral commission recently agreed to boost agricultural cooperation and to lower trade barriers for mutual food exports.
On July 7, Castro left Beijing for Hanoi, where he met with the general secretary of the Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung, and President Truong Tan Sang. During the two-day visit, according to the Vietnamese foreign ministry, Castro said he hoped that Cuba “will learn more experiences from Viet Nam in socio-economic management through regular discussions.” Cuban officials have previously expressed interest in Vietnam’s Doi Moi market reforms.
Dung urged the two countries to increase cooperation in agriculture, energy, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals. No announcements were made regarding specific agreements. Cuban companies provide construction services and biotechnology products to Vietnam. The Asian nation is Cuba’s biggest supplier of rice, shipping 300,000 tons in 2011, down from 400,000 tons in 2010; PetroVietnam, which is exploring for oil and gas in Cuban waters, is expected to take a decision in 2013 whether to contract a drilling platform; and a Vietnamese real estate development company is planning to build a golf resort in Cuba.
Making Castro’s itinerary delicate, neighbors Vietnam and China have recently exchanged harsh words over Chinese offshore drilling in an area in the China South Sea claimed by Vietnam. Both Petrovietnam and CNPC have offshore interests in Cuba.
Castro left Havana on July 1 but didn’t arrive in Beijing until the afternoon of July 4. The Cuban government didn’t say whether he made a stopover on the way; Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, another close ally of Cuba, often stops in Havana before or after important travel abroad.
In Moscow, where he arrived on July 10, Castro met with Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev and was scheduled to meet President Vladimir Putin on July 11. Expansion and diversification of trade and investment was among the main topics of conversations, according to Putin aide Yuri Ushakov. In a press conference, Ushakov mentioned joint ventures in “key transportation projects, aerospace, telecommunications, pharmaceutical products, and other fields.”
Russian state oil company Zarubezhneft just contracted a Norwegian-owned drilling platform that will explore near-shore areas of North-Central Cuba.
