‘Epitome of courage’: Lukashenka is set to visit Cuba, pay tribute to Fidel Castro


Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Fidel Castro, 2000. Photo by AP

Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka has announced his intention to visit Cuba in the near future.

During Thursday’s meeting Lukashenka asked Ambassador of Cuba Gerardo Suarez Alvarez, whose diplomatic mission in Belarus is coming to an end, to convey the best greetings to ‘his friend’ Raul Castro.

“I hope that I will have an opportunity to visit Cuba in the near future. I feel the need to pay tribute to Fidel. I must visit his tomb,” state-run news agency BelTA quotes the president.

According to the president, Belarus is always ready to help Cuba.

“We have established rather good relations in the economy. We do not have any problems in the political dimension. We have similar views on the global agenda,” he said.

Belarus makes export supplies of freight vehicles, tractors, tires, potash fertilizers, towered vehicles to Cuba. In January-August 2017, he bilateral trade made up $50.4 mln.

Interestingly, when Fidel Castro passed away, Lukashenka did not attend his funeral. Belarus was represented by his special representative Viktar Sheyman.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka once said that Fidel Castro had always been an ‘epitome of courage’ for him. He called the late Cuban leader ‘yet irreplaceable thinker’ and stressed that Castro’s advice continued to help him in the political and private life.

The both leaders used to maintaine close contacts and had a lot of informal conversations. Later, Lukashenka declared that those meetings had left a ‘lasting impression’ on him.

belsat.eu

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