China agrees Cuba debt relief, and new funds, after meeting between nations’ leaders
- Cuba says the two will find ‘formulas for ordering, restructuring debts’ after discussions between President Xi Jinping and counterpart Miguel Diaz-Canel
- Cuba last reported its foreign debt in 2019, at US$19.6 billion; China is Cuba’s most important commercial partner after Venezuela
China has agreed to restructure Cuban debt and provide new trade and investment credits to the beleaguered Caribbean island nation after a meeting in Beijing between the two Communist countries’ leaders.
Cuba’s Deputy Prime Minister Alejandro Gil, who is also economy minister, said China had also donated US$100 million to help Cuba cope with basic goods shortages and an energy crisis worsened by Hurricane Ian, which decimated western Pinar del Rio province in September.
He was speaking to official media travelling with President Miguel Diaz-Canel as he returned home over the weekend from a tour of Algeria, Russia, Turkey and China.
Diaz-Canel told official media after the talks in Beijing that debt was at the top of his agenda with President Xi Jinping, who sympathised with the difficulties Cuba was going through.
The Cuban president said his Chinese counterpart indicated “a solution must be found to all the problems with Cuba, regardless of the debt, and that this cannot be what limits development”.
Chinese trade and investment have slowed in recent years due to Cuba’s failure to meet restructured debt payments according to analysts and diplomats, a situation worsened by tighter US sanctions, the pandemic and domestic economic inefficiencies.
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“We are going to find mutually acceptable formulas for the ordering and restructuring of debts,” Gil said. Analysts estimate the debt in the billions of dollars, although no official figures are available. Cuba last reported its foreign debt in 2019 at US$19.6 billion.
China is Cuba’s most important commercial partner after Venezuela, although trade has declined from over US$2 billion in 2017 to US$1.3 billion last year, according to the Cuban government. Various investment projects have also ground to a halt.
Gil said China had agreed to quickly complete a floating dock, wind power and solar energy projects, among others.
