NEW DELHI.— India’s principal leaders expressed their commitment to strengthening the country’s friendship with Cuba upon receiving Vice President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez with notable warmth, yesterday March 23.
On the first of his two days in India, Diaz-Canel met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, reported PL.
The Indian Prime Minister reiterated his admiration for the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro and President Raúl Castro, and celebrated the fact that the two countries had maintained a positive relationship over a period of 55 years, since diplomatic relations were first established.
India was one of the first countries to recognize Cuba’s revolutionary government in January of 1959, and the two nations became founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement.
The meeting between Modi and Díaz-Canel was the highest level exchange between the two countries since October 2013, when Vice President Hamid Ansari visited Havana and was received by Fidel and Raúl.
Díaz-Canel met later with Foreign Minister Swaraj, with whom he discussed possibilities for increasing bilateral trade and cooperation in the areas of biotechnology, information technology, renewable energy, education, sports and culture.
The Cuban Vice President will today visit the city of Agra (some 180 kilometers from the capital) where the world famous Taj Mahal World Heritage Site is located, to complete his international tour which also included visits to Namibia, Angola and South Africa.
