The only foreign military facility currently located in Cuba is the US naval base at Guantanamo.
Cuba intends to widen cooperation with Russia and with other countries willing to engage, and says that such ties are not designed to threaten anyone, according to an interview given by Havana's permanent representative to the United Nations, Ernesto Soberon Guzman, to the Russian state news agency TASS. The interview was published on 9 November and datelined United Nations.
According to the report, Soberon Guzman said he had no doubt that Cuba would expand cooperation not only with Russia but with other interested countries across various areas. The purpose, he said, is to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes for the parties involved rather than to pose a threat to anyone. He added that cooperation with foreign partners is aimed at developing the Cuban economy and serving the interests of the Cuban population.
The envoy also said Havana intends to rely primarily on its own efforts to protect its sovereignty and independence. That formulation places external partnerships in a supporting role, framed as economic rather than strategic in character. He rejected claims that Cuban cooperation with Moscow or with other countries could threaten US national security, an assertion the report attributes to him without further elaboration.
His most pointed remark concerned the American presence on Cuban soil. According to TASS, Soberon Guzman said the only foreign military facility currently in Cuba is the US naval base at Guantanamo, which he described as being there against the will of the Cuban people, and that there are no other foreign military facilities in the country. The argument is a familiar one from Havana, and it was deployed here to counter suggestions that Cuban partnerships with Russia or others amount to a foreign military foothold in the Caribbean.
The timing and the outlet matter. The interview was given to TASS, and the framing of expanded cooperation with Russia comes amid wider scrutiny of Moscow's relationships with states in the Western Hemisphere. The report does not specify which areas of cooperation are under discussion, what agreements might be in preparation, or which other countries Havana has in mind. It offers no detail on the scale, financing or timetable of any expanded ties, and no response from Washington or from the US government to the envoy's remarks is included.
What the interview does establish is Havana's public line: cooperation is open, economic in purpose and defensive in intent, while the foreign military presence it highlights is the American one at Guantanamo. Whether that framing is accepted by Washington is not addressed in the material. For now the substance of any expanded Cuban partnerships, and their practical consequences, remain unconfirmed beyond the envoy's own account.
