Cuban and Chinese Foreign Ministries strengthen ties

HAVANA, Cuba, July 20 (ACN) Cuban First Deputy Foreign Minister Gerardo Peñalver is paying a visit to Beijing to hold inter-foreign ministry political consultations and meet with the Executive Deputy Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu and other senior Chinese government and Communist Party officials.

Mr. Peñalver’s agenda in the People’s Republic also features visits to sites of socioeconomic interest, as well as an exchange with members of the Cuban Embassy in Beijing.

In statements to the press during his visit to China last May, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez referred to the special nature and strategic scope of the ties between the two countries and thanked the Asian nation for its solidarity with the island.

This year, Mr. Parrilla recalled, Cuba and China celebrate 65 years of diplomatic relations―even if their ties date back to the 19th century with the arrival of the first Chinese citizens―marked by deep mutual political trust, important exchanges between their respective Communist Parties, governments, and organizations, and growing cooperation in fields like culture, science, academia and sports, among others.

On September 2, 1960, in front of more than a million Cubans, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, called for a break with the government of Taiwan to establish diplomatic ties with Mao Zedong's People's Republic of China.

On September 28 that year, Cuba became the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to establish such ties with the new China, thus paving the way for relations between the Asian nation and other countries in the region.