Havana, Cuba.- India and Cuba celebrate three decades of growing relations this 2020, and are willing to strengthen them more in the future on the basis of respect, support and cooperation, assured Ambassador Madhu Sethi.

‘This 60th anniversary will invigorate the commitment of both sides to strengthen friendship, bring our peoples closer and expand the ties for mutual benefit,’ stated the head of mission in Havana in an interview with Prensa Latina.

These relations are based on ‘the excellent ties of friendship between the leaders of both countries,’ stressed the Ambassador, who recalled Ernesto Che Guevara’s visit to New Delhi in July 1959 and his meeting with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

He added the subsequent meeting in September,1959 in New York within the framework of the UN General Assembly between Nehru and Fidel Castro, in which there was great mutual understanding between the two leaders and in January 1960 diplomatic ties came into effect.

From then on, dignitaries from both countries exchanged visits, the most recent one by President Ram Nath Kovind to Havana in 2018.

In the international arena, India’s and Cuba’s relations are characterized by a convergence of criteria in many global issues of common interest, and they mutually support each other in multilateral forums.

‘We are together at the forefront of world politics in promoting the interests of developing nations in either the Non-Aligned Movement or the United Nations,’ pointed out Sethi.

Both States – he added – are founding members of the NOAL and defend the principles of equality, unity of developing countries and South-South cooperation, while New Delhi supports Cuba in the face of the US blockade. ‘Our solidarity will always be with Cuba,’ he affirmed.