The Royal Canadian Navy now finds itself in the unusual position of both shadowing Russian warships as a threat in the Caribbean and sharing an anchorage with them as a guest in the port of Havana — because Canada accepted an invitation to send a patrol ship to Cuba while the Russian navy is in town.
And it’s not clear just who in government or the military knew about the invitation from Cuba. The Caribbean nation has been a full-throated supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine and Cubans have been fighting alongside Russian soldiers in that country.
A spokesperson for the Department of National Defence (DND) told CBC News on Friday that the department was aware the Russians would be in Havana port on the same days as the Canadians.
But when asked about the visit on CBC’s Power and Politics on Thursday evening, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told host David Cochrane she knew nothing about it.
Cuba might get the short end of this one. If it becomes too embarrassing for our military/government they might cut off relations. And Canadian tourism is a big sustainer of Cuban coffers. Canada could cut off that income by blocking travel there, or even just declaring it as an “avoid all travel” zone, effectively cutting off tourism.
The truth is, we don’t know what’s going on. Maybe this was a deliberate decision to get closer to the Russians without triggering an incident. Maybe the US knew about this and approved it. Maybe it was a blunder, but we can’t just assume it was.