Cuba criticizes US for sending nuclear submarines to Guantanamo Bay

Havana [Cuba], July 12: Cuba on July 11 protested the presence of a nuclear-powered submarine at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay east of the island last week.
In a statement, Cuba's foreign ministry said the country "strongly opposes the arrival of a nuclear-powered submarine at Guantanamo Bay on July 5, 2023 and its stay until July 8 at a US military base in the United States." there," according to AFP.
The statement said the incident was "a provocative escalation by the United States, whose political or strategic motives have yet to be determined".
The Cuban Foreign Ministry also warned of "the danger posed by the presence and circulation of nuclear submarines of the US armed forces in the neighboring Caribbean".
In Washington DC, the State Department said it did not discuss the move of US military assets. However, spokesman Matthew Miller said the US position is "we will continue to move military assets by air, water and other means to wherever is appropriate in accordance with international law." ".
Cuba has criticized the United States as relations between Cuba and Russia are said to be increasingly tight, with an increase in bilateral projects and visits by high-ranking officials even as Moscow is embroiled in conflict. conflict in Ukraine.
Last month, Cuba and Russia - both under US sanctions - announced that they would pursue closer "technical-military" cooperation.
Moscow and Havana were at the heart of the global nuclear weapons threat in 1962, when the Soviet Union sent missiles to Cuba, leading to one of the most famous crises of the Cold War.
Relations between Cuba and China have also attracted attention recently. The Wall Street Journal reports that Havana is in talks with Beijing to set up a joint military training facility in the island nation, and the White House says China has operated an intelligence unit in Cuba for years - information that Havana has denied.
Cuba has repeatedly demanded the return of the 117 square kilometer territory east of Cuba, which has been leased to the United States indefinitely since 1898 and is home to the Guantanamo Bay naval base.
Since 2002, the base has been used by the US to hold "enemy fighters" captured during Washington's "war on terror" after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Last month, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights Fionnuala Ni Aolain said the treatment of the remaining 30 detainees at Guantanamo was "cruel, inhuman and demeaning".
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper