Canadian Navy ships and US attack submarine arrive in Cuba, shortly after Russian warships

 

Canadian Navy ships and US attack submarine arrive in Cuba, shortly after Russian warships

A Canadian Navy patrol ship and a US attack submarine arrived in Cuba within hours of a Russian warship docking in Cuba.

A Canadian Navy patrol ship arrived in Havana early Friday morning, just hours after the US announced that a fast attack submarine had docked at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay naval base. This came just after a Russian warship docked on the island earlier this week, a disturbing reminder of former Cold War tensions and Russia's tense relations with the West amid the Ukrainian war. Although the encounter between the Russian, Canadian and US ships took place in close proximity to Cuba, both the US and Cuba said the Russian warships posed no threat to the region. Moreover, Russia said the arrival of its warships in its ally Cuba was routine. The frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the nuclear submarine Kazan, half submerged with their crews on deck, entered Havana harbor on Wednesday after training in the Atlantic Ocean with "high-precision missile weapons," the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The Canadian patrol ship Margaret Brooke began exercises to enter Havana harbor early Friday. The Canadian Joint Operations Command said the visit was a gesture of recognition of the enduring bilateral ties between Canada and Cuba. The incident came hours after U.S. Southern Command announced that the fast attack submarine Helena had arrived for a routine port call at Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. naval base at the tip of an island about 850 kilometers southeast of Havana.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry said it had been informed of the U.S. submarine's arrival but was not satisfied with it. "Naval visits to a country are usually made upon invitation, but this was not the case," said Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernández de Cosío.

"It is clear that we are uncomfortable with the presence on our territory of a submarine from a country that formally and de facto pursues a hostile policy towards Cuba," the ministry statement said.