Iran and Cuba: Great Opportunities for a Beneficial Partnership

22 yeas after the visit to Tehran of the late President Fidel Castro, this is the first visit of a top Cuban leader to Iran paid at the invitation of the Iranian President Seyyed Ibrahim Raisi. 

Iran’s president visited Cuba as part of a regional tour that took him to Latin American countries, the first to an Iranian president after 12 years at the invitation of his Cuban counterpart. During the visit, six documents and MoUs were signed to boost judicial, economic, customs, and IT cooperation. In this visit, signing more 7 document is expected to bolster the partnership between the two countries. 

Cuba is considered as one of Iran’s most important political partners in Latin America, and along with Venezuela, it has an important place in Tehran’s policy in terms of strengthening relations with Latin American countries. Having in mind that in recent years, especially under administration of President Raisi, the economy-oriented vision has become the face of foreign diplomacy programs, focus on the capacities of the two countries for the development of economic and commercial interactions has been prioritized in the diplomatic negotiations of the officials of the two countries. 

Diaz-Canel won the presidency in 2018 after decades of the Castro family being at the top of political power. He put the policy of economic reforms on the agenda, and at the beginning of 2021, the Cuban government implemented the equalization of the foreign currency rate, which, according to experts, is expected to bring positive results in the long term. Cuba’s economy recorded a GDP growth of 2 percent and in 2022 and is expected to continue its recovery in 2023 with GDP growth forecast put at 3 percent. 

Also, despite the initial pressures caused by the implementation of economic reforms, which, along with the imposition of new American sanctions against the country, led to a sudden increase in inflation up to 500 percent, the Cuban government managed to curb this difficult situation and in 2022, the inflation decreased to 39.07 percent. In addition, public debt also decreased in 2022, reaching 118.9 percent of GDP compared to 151.1 percent in 2021. 

Though Cuba may have a small economy compared to Venezuela or other important economic countries in the region, it is highly rich in natural resources. In this country, there are rich mines of two metals, nickel and cobalt, making it one of the largest producers and exporters of these two metals in the world. Cuba also has offshore reserves of oil and natural gas, mainly in the northern part of the island, although it suffers from lack of manpower and specialty in their drilling and production, and this is a great opportunity for the presence of Iranian companies. 

Sugarcane has also been the main crop of Cuba for over 300 years. Overall, agriculture accounts for 9 percent of GDP and employs 17.4 percent of the population. The country mainly produces sugar and sugarcane. Tobacco is the second export item of this country and other agricultural and products include citrus, coffee, corn, rice, potatoes, beans, bananas, soybeans, cotton, as well as livestock.

Service and tourism sectors make up for the main business environment of Cuba, which account for 75 percent of GDP and employ 65.5 percent of the active population. 

Its main imports are chicken

 ($330 million), wheat ($153 million), milk ($107 million), crude oil ($70.2 million) and rice ($66.9 million). Cuba’s ten main trade partners are consecutively Venezuela, China, Spain, Russia, Mexico, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, and the United States. 

Last month, the 39th Havana International Exhibition was held with the participation of Iranian companies. At the invitation of the deputy prime minister and minister of foreign trade and investment of Cuba, a delegation representing Iran’s minister of industry , mining and trade attended the exhibition. The deputy minister of industry of Cuba visited the Iranian pavilion, stating that Cuba has water resources, nickel and capacities that it cannot exploit. He added that the Cuban government seeks to exchange knowledge and experience and use Iranian capabilities. He went on that Havana can turn into a regional hub and distribute Iranian products across Latin American states. 

Cuban president welcomes Iranian Leader’s proposal 

The key event in the Cuban President’s visit to Tehran was his meeting with Iran’s Supreme Leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei on Monday evening. In the meeting, the Leader referred to the economic and political capacities of the two countries, adding: “These capacities should be used to form an alliance among countries that have the same position against American and Western bullying.” 

Historically and mainly since the second half of the 20th century, Cuba has had a key role in the international rivalry between the Eastern and Western blocs, and the July 1959 revolution marked a turning point in the overbearing relations of the US and the Latin American states. As a result, Havana became the point of optimism and support to the pro-independence and anti-imperialist movements across the region. In this period, Cuba was the origin of many developments in the Cold War, the peak of which being the October 1962 missile crisis. Even now Cuba, keeping its anti-American stances, is at the center of attention of such powers as Russia and China to manage the transition to a new world order. 

This is why the US still keeps its massive sanctions on this country. While Washington was expected to ease the sanctions under President Joe Biden, the American approach to this country went tougher. Biden tightened the travel ban imposed by his predecessor Donald Trump. 

Given the historical, political and geopolitical background, strengthening the political and economic convergence of Iran and Cuba in the two sensitive regions of Latin America and West Asia can become the center of gravity of the international coalition of countries opposed to the Western unilateralism and the current unfair world order. And even in the future, with more active participation in emerging organizations such as BRICS, their role will be strengthened. 

The political consonance of the two countries showed itself in the Cuban president welcoming the remarks of Iran’s leader about the Palestinian issue. The leader told him that the issue of Palestine is not only related to the recent issues in Gaza and the bombings, rather, the Palestinian people have been subjected to all kinds of tortures, sufferings and killings over the past 75 years. Now the tragedy in Gaza is so great that the reality has been revealed to the global public opinion and it is impossible to hide. 

Diaz-Canel said that what is going on in Gaza is an unacceptable genocide and the international organizations are closing their eyes to massacre of tens of thousands of Gaza people, the two third of whom are children and women. He added that the surprising issue is that the countries that complain about Russian war on Ukraine now are choosing silence to the Gaza massacre and this indicates the “bad conditions” of the world. 

He added that Iran and Cuba can enhance their communications on the world stage and become effective in global matters, including Palestinian cause. 

In general, analysts agree that the visit of the Cuban leader and signing of agreements and talks between officials of the two countries can be regarded as a firm step towards boost of Tehran-Havana relations at all levels and marks an important development in the future relations.