HAVANA, May 8. /TASS/. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez said on Friday he had a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and congratulated him on the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in the Great Patriotic War (the Eastern Front during WWII where Russia fought against Nazi Germany).
"I spoke with President Putin and congratulated him on the 75th anniversary of the heroic victory of the Red Army in the war against Nazism. We also congratulated each other on the 60th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic relations between Russia and Cuba," he wrote on his Twitter account.
Official contacts between Russian and Cuba were established in 1902 but were suspended after the Bolshevik Revolution. The Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with Cuba in October 1942 and severed them after the Fulgencio Batista coup on April 3, 1952. Relations were resumed on May 8, 1960 after the Cuban revolution.
"The countries have been strengthening these ties, which have reached a level of strategic partnership we have managed to consolidate thanks to the active top-level political dialogue and shared position on the key issues of the international agenda," as follows from an article by Russian and Cuban Foreign Ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, published in Friday’s issue of the Rossiiskaya Gazeta and Granma dailies.
"Russia and Cuba are looking in the future of bilateral relations with optimism and continues to work to protect their sovereignty and independence, and the right to ensure security and decide their own future. We have all the means and resources for that and we are confident that this is the right path," the ministers emphasized.