In spite the significant surge in tourism set off by the detente with the United States, Cuba’s economy shrank in 2016 for the first time in nearly a quarter century with the main culprit: a plunge in aid from crisis-stricken Venezuela. President Raul Castro called on the Cuban people to overcome the obsolete mentality against foreign capital.
The Vicepresident of the Council of Ministers of Cuba, Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz and Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin Friday signed a new defense cooperation agreement in Havana as well as six other treaties in the fields of technology, aviation, medicine and railroad transport.
New Iranian President Hassan Rouhani met in Tehran on Sunday with Cuban Vice President Ricardo Cabrisas and said his country wanted to expand its relations with Latin America, “especially with Cuba,” Iran's Isna news agency reported.<br />
Cabrisas traveled to Iran for Rouhani's inauguration on Sunday.