Diaz-Canel will infuse vigor into ties

Cuba witnessed a historic transition of power on Thursday with outgoing president Raul Castro handing over presidency to the first vice-president, Miguel DiazCanel. Cuba has got its first leader born after the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

In his inauguration speech, Diaz-Canel, 58, said he would follow the course of social and economic reform set at the 6th and 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. He also said Cuba would stick to its independent diplomacy policy, and not accept any conditions imposed by another country.

Nevertheless, Diaz-Canel is expected to bring freshness to Cuban politics and economy, as he promised to promote group leadership, increase people’s participation in politics, and make more flexible economic policies.

That the new Cuban president faces opportunities and challenges from home and abroad is obvious. So he needs to learn from Raul Castro’s reform measures and then take steps to improve them, in order to further boost the Cuban economy and raise people’s living standards. But to expedite economic development, he has to unify Cuba’s dual-currency system and multiple exchange rates, transform the economic structure to make it more open to non-state enterprises, and improve the regulations and Indian’s Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale’s visit to China in February.

Commerce Minister Zhong Shan visited New Delhi last month to hold talks to promote discussions on “China-India free trade area” and India’s trade deficit of $51 billion with China in 2017. The spirits seem high because of an unprecedented rise in China-India trade last year, especially because of about 40 percent increase in Indian exports to China.

It was Vice-Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou’s visit to New Delhi on April 5-6 to hold talks with India’s foreign secretary, which set the tone for the meeting between Xi-Modi in Wuhan.

Since 2014, when Modi on individuals and nonfarm cooperatives.

Cuba also needs to diversify its diplomacy, for which Diaz-Canel has to figure out a way to ease the embargo imposed by US President Donald Trump, and to reinforce relations with the European Union and other economies in the West, and developing countries in Asia and Africa.

The overall Cuban leadership has undergone a generational transition, with the National Assembly of People’s Power, Cuba’s legislative parliament, also voting 31 members to the Council of State, Diaz-Canel included. Among the State Council members who have an average age of 57 years, 77.8 percent became India’s prime minister, Xi has visited India twice — on a state visit in September 2014 and to attend the BRICS Summit in 2016, while Modi has visited China thrice — on a state visit in May 2015, and to attend the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in September 2016 and the BRICS Summit in Xiamen in September last year.

Discussions between Indian and Chinese officials on Modi’s visit to China began on the sidelines were born after the Cuban Revolution, while the eldest vice-president on the Council of State, Ramiro Valdes, is 85. However, Diaz-Canel’s new right-hand man, the first vice-president, will be 72-year-old Salvador Valdes Mesa, a former union leader.

Raul Castro, 86, and former vice-president Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, 88, will respectively remain the first and second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba until 2021, when Diaz-Canel will become both president of Cuba and the first secretary of the party. Raul Castro’s pledge of firm support will help Diaz-Canel to keep Cuba on the path of communism of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which Modi addressed in January, just like Xi had done last year. Much of these had been under the wraps and now reports about the Modi-Xi summit in Wuhan have raised expectations with both sides projecting new initiatives.

India wants China’s support for its membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, while China would like to explore India’s support for the China-Pakistan Eco- and economic reform.

Since Diaz-Canel has promised to follow Cuba’s communist course, China-Cuba ties are certain to continue to improve. As President Xi Jinping said in his congratulatory message to Diaz-Canel on his election, China and Cuba are good friends and good partners, trust each other and share the same fate. The two countries are expected to deepen cooperation to advance toward their goals in a world of uncertainties and rapid changes. The author is a researcher at the Institute of Latin American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The author is a professor of international relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.