Russian naval vessels have arrived in Cuba's capital Havana for a harbour visit.
The arrival of the frigate Admiral Gorshkov was greeted with a 21-gun salute off the coast of the Caribbean island nation, local media reported on Wednesday. A nuclear submarine was also sighted off the coast.
Havana is only around 170 kilometres away from Key West in the US state of Florida.
According to the Cuban government, the reason for the visit from June 12 to 17 is the historic friendship between the two countries. However, US media reported that Russia was planning military exercises in the Caribbean.
A Russian oil tanker and a salvage tug were also expected in Havana. None of the ships is said to have nuclear weapons on board.
US President Joe Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday on a flight to Italy for the Group of Seven (G7) summit that Russian naval operations off Cuba had already been observed in the past, but he emphasized that the US government was monitoring these ones very closely.
It can also be assumed that Russia will repeat such actions in the future, he added.
According to the US newspaper the Miami Herald, the US Navy deployed three destroyers, a coastguard ship and a maritime surveillance aircraft to observe the Russian ships.
There are elements of the current exercise that differ from previous ones, said Sullivan. But this is not the first time that Russia has visited Havana harbour with some of its naval units.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodríguez in Moscow at the same time on Wednesday.
"We agree on the excellent state of relations between Cuba and Russia and the strengthening of economic and trade relations achieved, with the implementation of projects in various sectors," Rodríguez wrote on the social media platform X.
At the summit for the G7 leading industrial nations in Italy, which begins this Thursday and with Biden in attendance, Russia's war against Ukraine is at the top of the agenda.