Ambassador of Cuba

Cuba seeks credit to boost imports from India

Mr. Miguel Angel Ramirez Ramos, Ambassador of Cuba, was in India in 1984 for the first time as the Third Secretary, then from 1988-1989 as Second Secretary and after various diplomatic assignments is back in India from 2007 as the Ambassador to India, Nepal and Bangladesh. He was Special Envoy of the Cuban President Fidel Castro to several Asian countries on both the occasions of the South Summit, as well as the Non Aligned Summit in Havana. He is co-writer of the book "From Eisenhower to Reagan". He spoke to THE BLUE MOON Editor, Amit Mittal on ties with India and issues with the US. Some excerpts: "Ties between Cuba and India are historic and very friendly. Starting after Cuba revolution, the ties have been strengthened through visits of leaders from both the countries. In 1959 the most iconic leader of 20th century Che Guevara made the first visit to India. He wanted to promote ties with like-minded countries, also the non-aligned movement. In 1960 our leader Fidel Castro met Indian Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru in New York. That meeting was historic, the Americans did not allow that so he had to stay in Hotel Teresa in New York's Black area of Harlem. It was not a luxury hotel, but the two leaders met there. The ties between the two countries have developed ever since. Fidel Castro visited India in 1973 while on his way to Vietnam. Again in 1983 he was in India to hand over the Chairmanship of NAM to the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In 1985 Rajiv Gandhi visited Cuba which was his first visit abroad after assuming the office of the Prime Minister. Then in 2006 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in Havana for the NAM summit. These high level visits indicate the close ties between the two countries. We have had very friendly ties and we will continue to strengthen them. Last year we celebrated 50 years of these ties of friendship. Now we aim at strengthening trade and economic ties,because in the 90s these ties did not grow." Which are the fields that Cuba wants to increase its presence in? "We have a lot of potential in sports. At the moment we have 55 Indian athlete trainers which are being trained by us. We have nine sports coaches in India including boxing coaches. We have the Cuban school of boxing. We have exchange in pharmaceuticals and bio-technology. We are exporting bio-technology from Cuba to India. We strongly need to grow our trade. We need to have an agreement to extend lines of credit to Cuban companies to be able to import from India. Our trade with India stood at USD 300 million in the 80s, but it dipped to USD 30 million in 2007, largely due to the economic crisis in 90s, but has improved to 70 million now. In 2008 the Indian government waived debt benefiting Cuba." Are there any joint ventures or investment by private Indian companies in Cuba? "We have the ONGC in joint venture in Cuba." Cuba is said to have the highest doctor to population ratio which many that there is a sizeable number of doctors. "Yes, we have the best ratio in the world. We have one doctor for every 165 people. Here I must tell you that pharmaceutical companies known in Cuba have better chances of selling in Latin American nations, because these countries buy medicines with ALBAMED approval which means that they are approved by the Latin American Bolivarian Alliance. In Cuba CEDMED is a part of this alliance, so any medicines certified by CEDMED in Cuba can go in to Latin American countries." What have been the effects of changes in Soviet Union of yester years? "In 1996 our entire trade with Soviet Union fell, the whole economy suffered as the GDP fell 35 %. But we have been developing our human resources. We have a literacy rate of 99%. We have more than one million university graduates in a population of eleven million. We have a very low infant mortality rate and an average life expectancy above 75 years ." How is the growth of tourism in Cuba? "We have about 2.7 million tourists coming to Cuba today, but not many US tourists due to the American blockade which does not allow bilateral trade, they also interfere in exports to Cuba. Due to this blockade by America, we have suffered damages totaling USD 700 billion. We continue to fight this blockade. We have been condemning the US and Israel in the United Nations. They want to punish Cuba for being an independent nation. A classified document of 1960 reveals that the US is trying to create rebellion in Cuba against the government. It is a sort of genocide for the last 50 years. Now they are sending mercenaries with satellite phones to create rebellion in Cuba ; they are using facebook and twitter. How can you allow men with satellite phones to move freely in the country, they are a security threat. They want to subvert the present regime in Cuba. Have you heard of the Cuban five in Miami? They have been jailed after a farce trial. They were basically penetrating terrorist organizations against Cuba. Americans of Cuban origin want to topple the present regime. The biggest terrorist in the western hemisphere is Luis Posada Carriles He bombed a civilian plane in 1976 in which 73 passengers lost their lives. Now he is being tried for perjury; for entering Miami illegally. On the other hand, they have put us in the list of terrorists." There are reports of a large number of journalists being imprisoned in Cuba. What do you say to that? "They are no journalists, but US paid mercenaries. They are defaming us. Organisations like Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders are US tools. They are funded by USAID. They have never been journalists." It is said that internet access to people in Cuba is restricted. Is that true?. "Use of internet was allowed to Cuba in 1996. Since we do not have optic fibre so far, internet access is given on priority to scientists, educational institutions, doctors, but there is no restriction. The Americans manipulate access to internet. For us it is an infrastructural problem and not a political issue. From June this year we will have optic fibre coming from Venezuela, then we will have much larger access to internet." Have you been exploiting your oil reserves fully? "We have four million tons of oil production every year and we have to import four million tons from Venezuela. We will now start offshore operations for oil."