One of the continuing surprises in the Narendra Modi government’s external affairs is the regular pampering of Cuba. The other, more surprising engagement is with North Korea: the international community sat up and took note of a ministerial visit to Pyongyang and the flow of Indian economic assistance.
If India’s multi-faceted association with Cuba hitherto – since the Modi government’s perceived distance from the Non-Aligned Movement and closer involvement with the West – has been a surprise, this year will see deeper, more intense exchanges and dialogue between New Delhi and Havana. There is a convincing case for such a prospect. On January 12, Cuba became Chair of the Group of Seventy-Seven (G77) + China and will steer the largest inter-governmental organisation of developing countries in the world throughout 2023. Cuba’s role as G77 Chair runs almost parallel to India’s presidency of the Group of Twenty (G20).
Quid Pro Quo Likely
Of lesser but critical importance, Cuba’s leadership of G77 also coincides with India’s presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), lasting until September this year. Cuba has special relations with most SCO members and can be of backdoor help to India if problems arise. The SCO is the only functioning plurilateral platform where India and Pakistan are active members. India has been Chair of G77 multiple times in the organisation’s 59-year history, but Cuba has just stepped into that role for the first time. Havana is certain to seek New Delhi’s guidance for itself: therefore, the possibility of a quid pro quo exists on their respective back channels regarding the SCO and the G77, calling for greater engagement between Cuba and India this year.
On January 24, when Cuba’s Ambassador to India, Alejandro Simancas Marín, combined three national celebrations into a glittering, well-attended event in New Delhi, the Modi government once again demonstrated its continuing care for Cuba. Meenakshi Lekhi, the Minister of State for External Affairs, had barely returned home from a visit to Havana and three other Latin American and Caribbean capitals, when she was deputed to be the chief guest at Marin’s festivities. Her officiation at the Cuban celebration was taken special note of by New Delhi’s diplomatic corps. More often than not, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) sends one of its Secretaries to National Day events of smaller countries or those with whom India has no major economic interests. Sending a minister to be the chief guest is a gesture of special regard.
If Marin had revealed in advance of the occasion that Che Guevara’s daughter and granddaughter were to be stars at the January 24 celebrations, crowds would have gathered at the venue of the private, invitees only commemoration of six decades of India-Cuba friendship, the 64th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban revolution and the National Day of Cuba. Che’s legacy as a revolutionary retains wide appeal all over the world 55 years after he was captured while leading an insurrection and shot dead by the Bolivian Army. His millions of admirers include many Indians and a new generation of Cuban Americans in the United States, whose parents and grandparents ironically became émigrés in Florida because they were against the Communist revolution led by Fidel Castro, ably assisted by the charismatic Che. In June 1959, Che arrived in India and was received by the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. On their current travels through Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, Aleida Guevara March and Estefania Machin Guevara have been repeatedly talking about that visit by their father and grandfather, respectively. India and Cuba opened embassies in each other’s capitals a year after that milestone visit by Che.
Meaningful Relationship
Seven months ago to this day, India sanctioned a short-term credit of 100 million Euros (Rs 887 crore) for Cuba to buy rice for its domestic consumption. Under an agreement, such procurement of rice will be from India. Cuba is one country where traditional Indian medicine and yoga are making rapid strides: Cuba’s ethos and its social mores are conducive to receiving Indian heritage. Consequently, the promotion of the AYUSH Ministry’s initiatives is not merely on paper. They also do not begin and end with the ritual International Day of Yoga on June 21 as in most countries around the world. When Lekhi – who is also the junior Minister for Culture – was in Cuba, her counterpart from the host Ministry of Culture, Alpidio Alonso Grau, showed off their Panchakarma Centre, which also boasts of ayurveda practitioners at an International Health Centre called La Pradera. In Spanish, the name means the prairie or meadow.
A puzzling donation during Lekhi’s visit was 125,000 doses of pentavalent vaccines: Cuba is a front-runner in the development and use of vaccines. Pentavalent vaccines protect children against infantile infections and provide life-long protection. The standards of child welfare are very high in Cuba because it prioritises health and even sends its doctors abroad to countries with fewer indigenous health facilities.
Because Cuba emphasises the importance of social development, when India was conceptualising the recent Voice of the Global South Summit, it conveyed to Saurabh Kumar, the MEA Secretary in charge of the Caribbean, that its Minister of Higher Education, José Ramón Saborido, would represent Havana at this virtual Summit which saw participation by 125 countries. Harmonisation of the Indian and Cuban presidencies of G20 and G77 had a good start at this Summit. Speaking for G77, Saborido said his country’s presidency “proposed to defend universal access to inclusive, equitable and quality education as an engine for development.”
KP Nayar has extensively covered West Asia and reported from Washington as a foreign correspondent for 15 years. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.
