We are delighted to welcome you and all our Cuban friends.

We are about to enter a period of intensive highest-level and high-level contacts. The Russia-Cuba Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Industrial, Scientific and Technical Cooperation is expected to hold its meeting soon. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko will be visiting your country.

We have been proactive in preparing the visit by President of the Republic of Cuba, Comrade Miguel Diaz-Canel. We would like to praise him for accepting President Vladimir Putin’s invitation to take part in the celebrations marking 80 years of the Great Victory. In addition to this, his visit will almost coincide with another major anniversary linking our two countries. I am referring to 65 years of bilateral diplomatic relations.

We want all these contacts and visits to pave the way for an agreement on further strengthening our strategic partnership across the board and stepping up coordination on the international stage, and we will make sure that these initiatives materialise by drafting the corresponding decisions and resolutions.

Your visit has special significance in this context. I know that you have quite a packed agenda here, including important meetings, detailed conversations and agreements with your colleagues from the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, as well as party-level talks with the ruling United Russia party.

I believe that your visit marks an important stage in preparing the next meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission in Havana and President of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel’s visit.