In Havana, a patrol ship of the Canadian Navy arrived just a few hours after the visit of the US submarine USS Helena. The ships followed Russian military vessels that arrived on the island earlier this week, reports Reuters.
The Canadian patrol ship Margaret Brooke began maneuvers on the morning of June 15 to enter the port of Havana.
In the Canadian Joint Operations Command, this was called a port visit ... in recognition of the long-standing bilateral relationship between Canada and Cuba.
Earlier, the Southern Command of the US Armed Forces stated that the fast-attack submarine Helena arrived for a routine visit to Guantanamo, the US naval base on the edge of the island, and that the vessel's location and transit were previously planned.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba reported being informed about the arrival of the American submarine but did not express enthusiasm about it.
The press notes that the presence of Russian, Canadian, and American vessels in Cuba was a reminder of old Cold War tensions and fraught ties between Russia and Western nations over the Ukraine war.
Both the US and Cuba have stated that the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the nuclear submarine Kazan do not pose a threat to the region, with Moscow describing the arrival of its ships to the ally Kremlin island as routine.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that the frigate and nuclear submarine entered the harbor on Wednesday after conducting exercises with high-precision missile weapons in the Atlantic Ocean.
According to a Canadian diplomat, the arrival of the patrol boat Margaret Brooke was routine and part of long-standing cooperation between our two countries.
He also added that this unrelated to the presence of the Russian ships.