Miguel Díaz-Canel left China with a large check. Beijing donated around $100 million to Cuba during an official visit by the island’s president, its Deputy Prime Minister Alejandro Gil announced on Saturday.
The latter, who is also Economy Minister, stressed that this donation is “priority” for Cuba’s economy, which is facing the worst economic crisis in three decades. The reasons for this are the tightening of the US embargo that has been in force since 1962 and the consequences of the global Covid-19 pandemic.
The island in the grip of an energy crisis
The Cuban President ended his official visit to China on Friday with talks with his counterpart Xi Jinping. This trip was part of the international tour that took him to Algeria, Russia and Turkey with the aim of strengthening the critical electric power sector, which has been suffering from a severe production crisis since May, resulting in blackouts and fuel shortages.
Alejandro Gil announced that the two countries signed “twelve legal instruments” during the visit, some of which concern “the reopening of new financing” for Chinese investments in Cuba. The parties also discussed the “issue of the debt” the island has accumulated with China in “these (last) years”, the amount of which has not been disclosed.
China, Cuba’s second largest trading partner
“Our President has explained the situation we are facing, the Chinese side has shown understanding and we will see everyone’s positions together to find formulas acceptable to each country to ensure order and debt restructuring,” added the Deputy Prime Minister of Cuba. China is the island’s second largest trading partner after Venezuela and a key political ally.