... term. With the admission of two countries from this region as associate members of the bloc, the Latin American presence in the pool of developing countries seeking to increase their weight in shaping the new world order is set to grow. Bolivia and Cuba joined BRICS as partners along with 11 other countries: Algeria, Belarus, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Together with the core BRICS countries and the new members who joined a year earlier,...
... state of war. The strict oil embargo has resulted in a shortage of petrol, which is needed by both the military and medics. Cuba has faced fuel shortages as a result of a U.S.-led embargo for years now. Venezuela and a number of other countries have ... ... Even though the UN Sanctions Committee
approved
applications for humanitarian exemptions, a host of problems arose—bank refusals, supplier delays, delays at customs, etc.
Christian Wollny:
Coronavirus Reveals Cracks in European Unity
Individual exemptions ...
... a loaded gun pointed directly at their head in an area of vital interest. But, this also highlights the crucial problem with their current strategy concerning the whole Ukrainian affair, which makes their case a lot weaker than it was concerning the Cuban affair, considering that the main accusation against Russia isn't backed up by robust evidence.
This is not to support the view that Russia isn't involved in any activity correlated with Ukrainian affairs, quite the contrary. After all, it would be inconceivable that they ...
... called for an early end to the economic blockade of Cuba and declared it illegal for the United States to undertake “unilateral measures,” such as the infamous Helms-Burton Act.
REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino/Pixstream
Alexander Korolkov, Tatiana Rusakova:
Brazilian League for a Bear and a Panda
Its most positive result, perhaps, appears to be the EU’s promise to conclude an agreement with Cuba.
The final declaration was approved unanimously and reaffirmed the “rejection of coercive measures of an unilateral character” with regard to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela without mentioning the United States directly. It abounded ...
... the "normalization" process. Although the US government has only permitted visits to Cuba to a few categories of its citizens, the absolute figures of Americans willing to visit Cuba made an immediate dramatic rise. There are hundreds and thousands American visitors exploring Cuba: you can see them everywhere now.
There is, of course, an issue of how all of this will affect Cuban domestic agenda.
On the one hand, the island has grown colossal weariness from the peculiarities of "real socialism": a very sad state ...
... global attention is rightfully focused on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, that is no excuse to forget other comparably important historical events that have played a key role in preserving and developing modern society, including the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, which shattered the Soviet-American relationship. It is common knowledge that the situation was eventually resolved by the leaders of the two global superpowers, USSR and the U.S., but little is known about the activities ...
... Venezuela
[2]
.
At the same time the isolation of the USA and its closest allies in the southern hemisphere is becoming increasingly obvious. The parallel integration processes in the region and the creation of new alliances that don’t include the USA and Canada, in the context of Cuba’s active involvement in these processes, only emphasise the reduction of Washington’s role in inter-American relations.
1
. “Panama… is the bridge of the world, the heart of the universe” (Spanish: "Panamá…puente ...
... case in point was just getting it out of the boxes.”
Since then, there has been no new information about any high-profile contracts with Cuba, and according to
official statistics
, in 2013, Russia supplied weapons and ammunition worth $197.7 thousand to Havana.
China, like Russia, prefers to soft-pedal its military-technical cooperation with Cuba. Mentions of it in the media could harm trade.
China’s military continue to visit Cuba
and talk about cooperation in training.
progresoweekly.us
Col. Gen. Fang Fenghui, Chief of the General
Staff of the Chinese Army and Army Corps
Gen. Alvaro ...
In late December 2014 it was announced that relations between the United States and Cuba had been restored. Both sides agreed on the mutual release of a number of prisoners in U.S. and Cuban jails. There was a breakthrough in the economic sphere too, with U.S. banks allowed to open branches in Cuba and U.S. citizens permitted to send ...
... countries agree to raise financing for Adaptation Fund or Green Climate Fund, if there is no chance to bind polluters from developing world to cut their emissions? The logic of relative gains dictates the opposite.
5. And finally: Will the U.S. and Cuba become friends?
The recent initiative of President Obama to restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and to open an embassy in Havana after more than a half-century of embargo was big news, even if the Cold War is gone. Obama's Realpolitik ...
