A delegation of more than 200 members shows Russia’s interest in strengthening strategic cooperation with a crucial partner in the Caribbean basin, Dmitri Chernyshenko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, said on Thursday.

Chernyshenko referred to agreements for the supply of cereals, oil and its by-products to Cuba, while information work of Russian banks in Cuba is being coordinated and the next step is payment projects in national currencies.

Speaking at the plenary of the 20th session of the Russia-Cuba intergovernmental commission, the officer of the Russian Federation highlighted that the bilateral commercial exchange tripled in 2022, and grew nine times only in the first four months of this year.

Deputy Prime Minister and Head of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment of Cuba, Ricardo Cabrisas, considered it necessary to increase and diversify Cuba’s exports to Russia, and spoke in favor of re-exporting not only traditional products such as crustaceans, coffee and tobacco, among others, but also promoting the spheres of tourism health services and biotechnology.

The Business Forum, which sees the participation of over a dozen working groups, is undertaking the search for concrete steps to strengthen cooperation and identify areas of possible investment, after the completion, of at least, 10 of them, Cabrisas said.

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