The Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) of Cuba, General of the Army Corps Álvaro López Miera continued his journey, which started a few days ago in Vietnam, in Belarus and made a second stop in Russia. In Minsk he sealed Havana’s military alliance with the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.
According to Belarusian media reports andThe Cuban general, along with several officials from his ministry, met with the head of the Defense Ministry in MinskVictor Khrenin.
According to this information The governments of Belarus and Cuba are interested in intensifying military contacts.
“The parties exchanged opinions on the assessment of the security situation in the world and the politico-military situation in the European region,” reported local media outlet Reform.
“Next to, The heads of the defense departments discussed in detail the current status of bilateral military cooperation and the ways for its further development,” ended the press service of the Belarusian army.
López Miera arrived in Minsk from Russia, where he met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in Moscow on Tuesday, just three days after the failed uprising by mercenaries from the Wagner group.
After this meeting, Shoigu noted that the “Cuban friends reaffirmed their relationship with our country and, in particular, showed a full understanding of the reasons for starting the special military operation in Ukraine.”
López Miera’s visit came less than a month later, despite the sparseness of press coverage The authorities of Belarus and Cuba will announce that the island’s military is being trained in the European countrythe ally most involved in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and with whom Havana is strengthening its political and economic ties.
According to the official Belta Agency, on that occasion the head of the Department of International Military Cooperation and Deputy Minister of Defense for International Military Cooperation Valery Revenko met in Minsk with the military, naval and air attaché of the Cuban Embassy in Russia Belarus, the colonel Monica Milian Gomezwho was also part of the delegation that now accompanied López Miera.
According to this report, “It was reported that the meeting took place during the XI. International exhibition of weapons and military equipment MILEX took place. The parties discussed strengthening mutually beneficial partnership ties between the defense ministries of Belarus and Cuba.”
It was Revenko who reported about the meeting afterwards and via his Twitter profile: “Prior attention was paid to the training of Cuban military personnel in the Republic of Belarus and for the planned development of military cooperation between the two countries.”
The Cuban regime is strengthening its ties with the Moscow and Minsk repressive apparatuseswhich emerges from the agreements already announced during the visit of the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, to Cuba last March, who met with the top officials of the FAR and the Ministry of Interior (MININT), as well as with Miguel Díaz-Canel and Raul Castro.
At Pátrushev’s meeting with General Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, head of Cuba’s MININT, they discussed “security cooperation and threats from the West” and the joint efforts of both governments to counter calls for “color revolutions” and the “destructive activities” , which according to the representatives of the Russian and Cuban regimes are carried out by non-governmental organizations.
This type of meeting made that clear Cooperation between Moscow and Havana and now with Minsk, as well as the long-standing one with China, is openly aimed at the repressive sphere.
In the case of Belarus, trips by senior Cuban officials to that country are becoming more frequent. Colonel Mónica Milian Gómez, responsible for finalizing the military training agreement with Minsk, was accredited as military, naval and air attaché to the Cuban Embassy in Belarus in August 2022, after years of holding that position at the Havana diplomatic mission in Moscow.