Cuba and Russia hold inter-foreign affairs political consultations

 HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 14 (ACN) Cuba and Russia agreed today on the excellent state of political-diplomatic ties, during the Inter-foreign affairs political consultations, held in Moscow.

At the meeting, co-chaired by Gerardo Peñalver Portal, Cuban first deputy foreign minister, and Sergey Alexeyevich Ryabkov, Russian deputy foreign minister, both sides stressed the interest in continuing to deepen economic, trade, financial, investment and cooperation ties.

According to the Cuban foreign ministry, topics on the regional and international agenda were discussed, and the strong cooperation between Cuba and Russia, based on 65 years of uninterrupted bilateral ties, was highlighted.

Peñalver Portal thanked Russia for its traditional support in favor of the resolution in the United Nations General Assembly against the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States, as well as its rejection of the reinsertion of Cuba in the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

On his part, Ryabkov highlighted the importance of the present exchange mechanism between the two foreign ministries and ratified Russia's support for the lifting of the US blockade against Cuba, due to its extraterritorial nature and violation of International Law.

The Russian diplomat also expressed his appreciation for the presence of the Caribbean country at the meeting of national coordinators of the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations, which is taking place this Monday in the Russian capital.

Both parties reiterated their willingness to continue developing bilateral relations in different areas of common interest, based on the broad potentialities identified.

According to the information, the Russian deputy foreign minister was accompanied by Alexander Schetinin, director for Latin America; Andrei Guskov, deputy director for Latin America, and Dimitry Chikurov, an official of the Russian foreign ministry.

Cuban side was also represented by Julio Garmendia Peña, Cuban ambassador to the Russian Federation; Alejandro Simancas Marin, deputy director general for Bilateral Affairs; Yiliam Gomez Sardiñas, official of the Directorate of Multilateral Affairs and International Law, both from the Cuban foreign ministry, as well as Enrique Orta Gonzalez, second in charge of mission of the Cuban Embassy to Russia.