LatinNews Daily - 23 June 2026

*Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel has hosted a delegation from Vietnam headed up by Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung, which visited Cuba from 20-22 June. During the visit, Le Hoai Trung also met Cuba’s Prime Minister Manuel Marrero and held talks with Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, according to Vietnam’s national radio broadcaster The Voice of Vietnam (VoV). The same source cites Le Hoai Trung as affirming Vietnam’s support for Cuba and said that he “spoke highly of the comprehensive transformation measures, particularly in the economic sphere, recently adopted by the extraordinary conference of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and Cuba’s National Assembly”. This is a reference to the sweeping economic package of reforms approved last week in response to unprecedented pressure from the US which is pushing for Cuba’s economic and political opening. Announcing the reforms last week, Díaz-Canel was cited by Cuba’s state mouthpiece Granma as saying that authorities are studying allies such as China and Vietnam that have embraced capitalism while remaining single-party states. The two countries have diplomatic ties dating back to December 1960. Last September President Díaz-Canel visited Vietnam as part of a tour which also took in China and Laos. A statement by Vietnam’s agriculture ministry released at the time stated that Vietnam was Cuba’s second-largest trading partner and the largest investor from the Asia-Pacific region. It said that bilateral trade turnover reached US$57.33m in 2023 while in the first eight months of 2024, trade between the two countries reached US$134.7m, with a target of US$500m over the next five years. Key areas of cooperation are agriculture, justice, and biotechnology according to Granma.

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