Lekhi delivered the keynote address at the India-Cuba: Current Trajectory and Way Forward panel, being held at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), in New Delhi, with the presence of Cuban Ambassador Alejandro Simancas.
According to the program posted on the ICWA website, Simancas and ICWA Director General Vijay Thakur Singh also addressed the audience. Former Indian Ambassador to Cuba Bhaskar Balakrishnan, and Sonya Surabhi Gupta, professor of Latin American Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia University, are attending the event as panelists.
According to the information, the event is taking place on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s visit to India, a historic event that took place on September 11, 1973.
The Cuban leader’s visit contributed to cementing the ties between the two countries, which path was paved by Ernesto Che Guevara’s trip to India in 1960, and the meeting that same year at the United Nations between Fidel Castro and the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
India was one of the first countries in the world to recognize the Cuban Government shortly after the Triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959.
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