Medvedev and Castro meet to rebuild Russia-Cuba relations

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

Medvedev and Castro meet to rebuild Russia-Cuba relations
Russian president will meet Fidel Castro tonight after signing oil exploration and nickel mining deals with brother Raul today

Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent guardian.co.uk, Friday November 28 2008 17.07 GMT

President Dmitry Medvedev was due to hold talks with Fidel Castro tonight to rebuild Russia's relations with Cuba almost a decade after they ended in acrimony.

The Russian leader earlier met and signed deals on nickel mining and oil exploration with Raul Castro, who succeeded his ailing older brother as Cuba's president in February.

In a display of bonhomie, the two presidents toured Havana's historical sights arm in arm. "It has been a magnificent visit and now he will see Fidel," Raul shouted to TV cameras.

The one-night stop in Havana was the final leg of Medvedev's week-long Latin America tour, a visit intended to open business opportunties for Russian companies and to show that Moscow could operate in the US backyard amid tension over Washington's involvement in eastern Europe and the Caucasus.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/28/cuba-russia

[Judi Lynn]

1. Cubans seek more trade with Canada

Cubans seek more trade with Canada
5 hours ago

OTTAWA — Cuba's trade minister says the Caribbean nation is seeking more business with Canada to bolster his country's economy during the global economic crisis.

Raul de la Nuez told The Canadian Press he hopes to boost the volume of trade between the two countries in the months ahead.

De la Nuez met this week with his Canadian counterpart, International Trade Minister Stockwell Day, as well as Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.

"I think that we have an opportunity to improve or to increase the volume of trade that today we have," De la Nuez said.

"We think that the relationship between both countries is important to us, and I think during this meeting we had the opportunity to discuss some of these issues."

A spokeswoman for Day says the two ministers spoke about Canada supplanting Spain as Cuba's third-largest trading partner, and about the growing number of Canadian tourists vacationing there.

Day also assured De la Neuz that Canada would make every effort to ease exports of agricultural goods and fertilizer to Cuba after three massive hurricanes swept over the island in the last two months.

De la Neuz says there's a need in Cuba for food, chemicals, fertilizers, machinery and commercial and high-tech equipment from Canada. In exchange, he says Cuba can provide Canada with nickel and ore concentrate, cigars and other traditional Cuban products.

More:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5igHfRwb1JM6FTKUUfnpVMPvGOZzw

[Billy Burnett]

2. PE Obama's Miami base isn't going to like this.

Medvedev didn't insist that Raul grovel in order for dialog, nor does the Canadian government.

Obama should learn from this. Plus he should learn that the treacherous gusanos he pandered to in Miami aren't his friends at all - they are simply seeking a larger US taxpayer teat to suck from (in the form of more "free Cuba" foundation funding, aka fleecing US taxpayers).

Mr. Obama should send an olive branch to Cuba by slashing the many hundreds of millions of wasted US dollars that fund illegal broadcasts from the US's Radio and TV Marti. After all he's looking for gov boondoggle programs to slash.

[msongs]

3. normalize relations with cuba NOW - free the people by behaving like friends, not enemies nt

[hughee99]

4. I wonder how many of Medvedev's sentences will start with the phrase

"Putin says..." or "Putin told me to tell you..."

[unkachuck]

5. they're baaaack....

....the Russians are back in town and they're looking for business....who in Havana could refuse the friendly overtures of one the worlds two great nuclear super-powers?

....nickel mining here, some oil exploration there, a new Russian naval base and a high-tech US data gathering center could bring Cuba some much needed revenue....and a little brotherly love....

[MasonJar]

6. Just because the USA has a stupid policy does not mean any other nation has

to follow it. The Iraq War separated the succumbers from the sensible. And the later is increasing with every passing day that Georgie Porgie is in office.

[ronnie624]

7. What "other nation" are you referring to?

Surely you aren't suggesting that friendly, mutually beneficial relations between two sovereign states is equivalent to forcefully intervening in the affairs of other nations, which is standard policy of the U.S. government.