Canada, US Warships Arrive In Cuban Port

On the heels of Russian warships that arrived on the island earlier this week.

A Canadian navy patrol ship sailed into Havana early on Friday, just hours after the United States announced a fast-attack submarine had docked there. Both countries claim that these visits have been planned, Reuters writes.

The confluence of Russian, Canadian and US vessels in Cuba “was a reminder of old Cold War tensions and fraught ties between Russia and Western nations” over the Ukraine war, stated in the Reuters material. Both the US and Canada stated before that the Russian warships in Cuba posed no threat.

The Admiral Gorshkov frigate and the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, half submerged with its crew on deck, sailed into Havana harbor on Wednesday after conducting training in the Atlantic Ocean.

Canada`s Margaret Brooke patrol vessel began maneuvers on June 14 to enter Havana harbor, part of what the Canadian Joint Operations Command called “a port visit ... in recognition of the long-standing bilateral relationship between Canada and Cuba.” The Canadian diplomat assures it is unrelated with the arrival of the Russian vessels.

Hours earlier, the US Southern Command said the fast-attack submarine Helena had arrived on a routine port visit to Guantanamo Bay, a US naval base on the tip of the island around 850 kilometers southeast of Havana.

“The vessel's location and transit were previously planned,” Southern Command said on X.

The port of Havana is located 160 kilometers from the American Key West, where the US Naval Air Base is located.