Russian President Vladimir Putin began a six-day Latin American tour aimed at boosting trade and ties in the region with a stop Friday in Cuba, a key Soviet ally during the Cold War that has backed Moscow in its dispute with the West over Ukraine, according to Reuters.
The visit focused on economic and commercial links as well as investment in projects including energy, transportation and civil aviation, Reuters reported. Russia has cooperated with Cuba in recent years on offshore oil exploration, which the island hopes could ultimately yield a windfall.
"Today, cooperation with Latin American states is one of the key and promising lines of Russia's foreign policy," Putin told Cuban state news agency Prensa Latina, according to Reuters.
Amid the crisis in Ukraine, Cuba and some other nations in the region have been sympathetic to Russia's position on the conflict or at least not overtly critical, Reuters reported. Articles in Cuban official newspapers tend to characterize it as a struggle against right-wing extremism that threatens ethnic Russians in Ukraine.
Earlier this year, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez criticized U.S. and European Union sanctions on Russian individuals and pro-Russian Ukrainians that sought to pressure Moscow, according to Reuters.
In March, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez accused the United States and Britain of having a double standard for criticizing a pro-Russian secession referendum held in Crimea while backing a similar vote in the disputed Falkland Islands on whether to remain a British overseas territory, Reuters reported. Brazil was among several nations opposing Russia's possible exclusion from an upcoming G20 summit in Australia due to the crisis.
"We are grateful to South Americans for the support of our international initiatives, including outer space demilitarization, strengthening international information security and combating the glorification of Nazism," Putin told Prensa Latina, according to Reuters.
Havana and Moscow have a shared history dating to the Cold War, when they were united by ideology and opposition to U.S. influence, but they drifted apart somewhat in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Reuters reported.
