March 12 (Reuters) – Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez spoke by telephone to his counterparts from both China and Russia on Thursday, three days after U.S. President Donald Trump said the Communist island was in “deep trouble”.
Trump, speaking to reporters on Monday, said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was dealing with the issue which may or may not be a “friendly takeover”.
Cuba has faced blackouts and fuel shortages amid an oil embargo imposed by the United States.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement on its website, said Minister Sergei Lavrov “confirmed Russia’s principled position as regards the unacceptability of the U.S. exerting economic and political pressure on Cuba.”
The Russian statement said that in the conversation, initiated by Cuba, “support was expressed for the fraternal Cuban people in defending their state sovereignty and their right to choose their own path of development.”
Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned what she described as blackmail and threats by Trump against Cuba, a traditional ally of Moscow.
Rodriguez met Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lavrov during a visit to Moscow last month. Putin described the restrictions placed on the island as “unacceptable”.
China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said Rodriguez had requested the call with Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Xinhua said the two sides “agreed to continue to advance the development of bilateral relations.”
(Reporting by Xiuhao Chen and Ryan Woo in Beijing; Editing by Toby Chopra, Ron Popeski and Tom Hogue)
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