Xi meets Cuban president

By XinhuaPublished: Sep 04, 2025 11:08 AM Updated: Sep 04, 2025 03:55 PM

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese president, meets with Miguel Diaz-Canel, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and Cuban president, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 4, 2025. Diaz-Canel is in China for the commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese president, met with Miguel Diaz-Canel, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and Cuban president, in Beijing on Thursday.

Diaz-Canel is in China for the commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

As this year marks the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Cuba, the two sides should seize this opportunity to elevate bilateral ties to a higher level and bring more benefits to the two peoples, Xi said.

The two countries should adhere to sincere mutual assistance and systematically promote development cooperation, Xi said, adding that China stands ready to continue providing Cuba with assistance and support within its capacity.

Xi urged both sides to implement the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative and the Global Governance Initiative effectively and work together to better build the International Organization for Mediation to make greater contributions to world peace and development.

China will continue to firmly support Cuba's just struggle against interference and blockade, Xi said.

The two parties and two countries enjoy close relations and an unbreakable bond of friendship, Diaz-Canel said.

He emphasized that Cuba looks forward to further strengthening all-round cooperation and high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and stands ready to provide a more favorable business environment for Chinese enterprises.

The two sides issued a joint statement on accelerating the building of the China-Cuba community with a shared future and signed multiple bilateral cooperation documents.

 The ALBA ship in solidarity route

It is the first trip of the commercial sea route of the ALBA-TCP countries facing the need to solve their regional maritime transportation challenge discussed during the XXIV Summit meeting of the alliance in December 2024.

Laura Mercedes Giráldez | internet@granma.cu

August 30 2025

As peace moves through the Caribbean, pure and white, despite intents of the salt to profane it. At the cabin, in the center of the ship, supervising the load, those eyes, the eyes of Chávez- through, no missiles but messages, so the world remembers that our America is not alone.

Thus as US ships and submarines point their cannons towards Venezuela, from the La guaira harbour the ship Manuel Gual, the same ship that would later receive the Special Development Zone Mariel, in an act with the presence of the members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Party, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz and the first Secretary of the Party in Artemisa, Gladys Martínez Verdecia, and Yudi Mercedes Rodríguez Hernández, member of the Central Committee of the Party Secretariat and chief of its Customer Services Department, and the ambassador of Venezuela in our island, its excellence Mr. Orlando Maneiro.  

It is the first trip of the sea and commercial route of the ALBA-TCP countries, faced with the need of a solution to the issue of regional maritime transportation as discussed during the XXIV Summit of the mentioned alliance in December 2024.      

In the words of Carlos Luis Jorge Méndez, interim Minister of Commerce and Foreign Investment, that «brave crew» was responsible not only «for a valuable shipment of material goods, but, above all, for the sincere love of the people and government of Venezuela towards Cuba. It is a reminder, he said, that when our peoples are together they are stronger and freer (…) a commitment to the shared future, joint development and the shared dream that our nations can prosper on the basis of complementarity and unity, without depending on anyone but the strength of our own people ».

«May each ship that travels the Caribbean on this route serve to honor the memory of Fidel and Chavez and ( ) to foster the certainty that we are building together a more just, sovereign and prosperous destiny for our peoples. While others build walls, we build bridges. While some impose blockades and sanctions, we open paths of brotherhood», he said, reminding us also of Cuba’s rejection and condemnation of the deployment of U.S. military forces and means in the Caribbean and the war of disinformation and lies that they carry out, to justify an aggression against the South American nation.   

More than 6 100 tons of products, such as food for supply and animal feed, fertilizers and seeds, arrived in the containers of the Manuel Gual. With this inaugural trip of the ALBA route, the experience will become a commercial model that would allow lower logistic costs, to promote new productive niches, to amplify the market to produce and to generate direct benefits to consumers.

And yet, this becomes not only a regional tool for Independence in economic matters, as dreamed by Fidel and Chávez when they created ALBA, but also it is a demonstration of solidarity, complementarity and collaboration to confront political and social challenges as said by Orlando Maneiro.

It is an expression of commitment and political will of the chiefs of state and government of the member countries, as integration is based on equity principles and resistance to imperialism, he stated.

The ALBA ship, after this first trip, will arrive at a diversity of destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean, a way to establish the first regular maritime routes on the bases of a sovereign logistic network. Because this is, since 2014, a Peace Zone, the alliance does not sanction or threaten with ships carrying nuclear weapons, but simple materializes the shared wishes of our eternal commandants, as they were also the aspirations of Bolívar and Martí: America united from the Bravo river to Patagonia.

Translation NSCUBA (Nova Scotia)