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AFP
Published: Thursday July 31, 2008

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin and a top security official met Cuban President Raul Castro on Thursday as part of a three-day visit focusing on building commercial ties, official media said.

The talks were conducted in a “cordial and friendly atmosphere” with both sides expressing the hope of bolstering already positive relations, said the statement carried by the Cuban press agency, Prensa Latina.

The meeting with Raul Castro, 77, successor to his ailing 81-year-old brother Fidel who handed over power in February, also included Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council and former head of the country’s powerful Federal Security Service, the statement said.

The meeting comes after Russia’s defense ministry last week denied a newspaper report it was considering basing bomber aircraft in Cuba in retaliation for US missile defense plans in Eastern Europe.

US General Norton Schwartz had said that Russia would cross “a red line for the United States of America” if it were to base nuclear-capable bombers in Cuba.

The official communique from Thursday’s talks made no mention of the subject, saying that representatives from both countries supported expanding commercial and financial ties.

Commercial trade between the countries was estimated at about 363 million dollars for 2007. The former Soviet Union was once communist Cuba’s main trade partner.

In 2006, Russia reportedly agreed to reschedule Cuban debt worth 166 million dollars owed to Moscow.