HAVANA, April 10. /TASS/. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel thanked Moscow for sending an oil tanker at a meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov on Thursday.
"We would like to take this opportunity to send greetings to our dear friend President Vladimir Putin," Diaz-Canel said as quoted by the Facebook page of the Cuban presidential administration (banned in Russia, owned by Meta Corporation, recognized as extremist in Russia) as saying.
"On behalf of the [Communist] Party, the government and the people of [Cuba], I want to express my gratitude for the fuel that the Russian Federation has sent us."
Diaz-Canel called "this act very significant and symbolic, a sign that Cuba is not alone."
Following meetings with the Cuban leadership and Russian-Cuban inter-ministerial consultations, Ryabkov said that Russia was not going to leave the western hemisphere. He also noted that Cubans are brothers for Russia, and relations with the Island of Freedom are of particular importance to Moscow, Russia cannot abandon it to its fate.
The Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin delivered 100,000 tons of crude to the Cuban port of Matanzas on March 31 as humanitarian aid to the Caribbean republic. Later, Russia said it was ready to send a second tanker with fuel to Cuba.
