Canadian navy patrol boat HMCS Margaret Brooke passes by Russian nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine Kazan and frigate Admiral Gorshkov as it enters Havana’s bay in Cuba on June 14.Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters
The Defence Minister is defending the recent deployment of a Canadian warship for a friendly port visit to Cuba at the same time that Russian naval vessels were present there, framing it as an act of deterrence against Moscow.
Last week, the Canadian Joint Operations Command’s account on X announced Friday’s Havana port visit by HMCS Margaret Brooke as an effort to recognize “the long-standing bilateral relationship between Canada and Cuba.”
But Defence Minister Bill Blair said Monday that “presence is deterrence. We were present,” offering a new justification for the port visit.
“The Canadian ship visited Havana to demonstrate Canada’s presence, naval capability and commitment to safe and open waters in the Americas,” he told reporters.
He added that the port visit, which lasted until Monday, was the product of “a request that was made to me by the commander of Joint Operations Command, and the admiral in charge of the Royal Canadian Navy.”
The Globe and Mail asked the Department of National Defence to explain how Canadian sailors spent their time in Havana’s port, but it did not immediately provide details.
News coverage of the Canadian coastal patrol vessel’s appearance in Havana captured it sharing anchorage there with a flotilla of Russian warships that had been conducting military exercises in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Russian vessels had been dispatched to Cuba after a warning from President Vladimir Putin that Moscow might arm countries to hit Western targets, in response to Ukraine’s allies allowing Kyiv to strike targets inside of Russia.
Russian warships leave Havana’s port after five-day visit to Cuba
Canada had also deployed a ship and surveillance plane to help the United States track the Russian flotilla as it headed to Cuba. These included the HMCS Ville de Québec frigate and the CP-140 Aurora surveillance plane.
Hundreds of Cubans are reportedly fighting for Russia in its war on Ukraine, although Havana has publicly disavowed this recruitment.
Cuban-Canadian Michael Lima Cuadra, a historian and democracy activist, said Canada’s decision to stage a port visit in Havana, a measure normally reserved for countries with friendly ties, sends a confusing message about where Ottawa stands.
He argued that a Canadian military ship visiting a Cuban port helps legitimize the Cuban armed forces. There are good reasons for Canada to instead shun Cuba, he said, given its detention of political prisoners and growing ties with Russia.
“Cuba is more repressive today than decades ago and has the highest number of political prisoners in the Americas, and its inner power circle actively collaborates with regimes like Putin’s in the asymmetric war against Ukraine – in its propaganda efforts, diplomatically and militarily,” Mr. Lima Cuadra said.
Cuba, facing economic difficulties owing to factors such as decades of embargo by the U.S., has strengthened its relationship with Russia after Moscow’s all-out 2022 assault on Ukraine. In November that year, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel visited Moscow where he, together with Mr. Putin, unveiled a monument to Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, pledging to deepen their friendship in the face of U.S. sanctions against both countries.
The Associated Press reported last year that China has been operating a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019, as part of a global effort by Beijing to upgrade its intelligence-gathering capabilities. The news service cited an anonymous member of U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration as its source.
Mr. Blair’s office Monday said that the Defence Minister did not consider Cuba an ally.
Nevertheless, relations between Cuba and Canada have warmed under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He visited the island in November, 2016, and when Mr. Castro died later that month, he issued a statement celebrating the authoritarian leader as a “legendary revolutionary and orator” and “larger than life leader who served his people.”
Prisoners Defenders, a human-rights advocacy group, said in a May, 2024, report that political prisoners in Cuba numbered 1,113.
Conservative defence critic James Bezan said in a Monday statement that it was “incomprehensible and bewildering” that the Trudeau government dispatched a warship to Cuba for a port visit when Canada’s military is “straining to meet basic operational needs and our naval ships are struggling to remain afloat.”
With files from Reuters and the Associated Press