China defense chief visits Cuba to strengthen ties

Havana, May 11: China's defense minister called for ''eternal friendship'' with Cuba at the start of a visit to bolster strategic ties with a communist ally from the United States.

Cao Gangchuan, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, will meet Cuba's acting President Raul Castro and visit Cuban military units.

Experts said growing ties with Beijing are crucial for Cuba as it copes with the absence of its ailing leader Fidel Castro.

But they believe China will not risk annoying the United States by providing Cuba military hardware.

''We wish eternal friendship between our countries,'' Cao said in Havana yester, first stop on a trip that includes Argentina, Chile and Greece.

Cao is the second top Chinese official to visit Havana in less than a month. Wu Guanzheng, a member of the Standing Committee of China's Communist Party Politburo, met on April 20 with convalescing Fidel Castro, who has not appeared in public since handing over power to his brother Raul nine months ago.

China is a crucial ally for Cuba because it has a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and could prevent any hostile action by the United States against the nearby communist state, said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami's Cuba Transition Project.

In the short term, Cuba is a stepping stone for Chinese business and trade with Latin America, and in the long term the island nation could serve China to pressure Washington over Taiwan, Suchlicki said.

Relations between Beijing and Havana took off after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

China last year became Cuba's second biggest trading partner after Venezuela, with two-way trade doubling to almost 1.8 billion dollars, due mostly to China's exports of machinery, vehicles and consumer goods financed with Chinese credit.

Cuba sells China nickel, sugar, medicines and crude oil.

Chinese military delegations frequently visit Cuba, whose armed forces need to modernize their weaponry and equipment.

But a military expert saw no sign that China is rearming the Cuban armed forces that were drastically downsized to a regular force of 60,000 men during the severe economic crisis that hit Cuba when its former Soviet benefactors disappeared.

''The Chinese have the kit, but they don't want to annoy the Americans by being too forward in the military sphere in Cuba,'' said Hal Klepak, historian at Canada's Royal Military College.

Cuba's military materiel is Soviet, so Chinese spare parts are of no use. But China could supply Cuba with fast patrol boats to stop drug trafficking and illegal migration, he said.

Reuters>