By Katie Davis C anada’s recently elected Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has been very busy on the international scene these days market- ing Canada with leaders abroad in the United Kingdom and United States. Now Cuba is looking to show support for Canadian- Cuba relations with an invitation to the Canada’s PM to visit the small communist island country. The last Canadian Prime Minister to visit
Cuba was Jean Chretien in 1998.
The invitation to the Canadian PM was sent only a week after United States President Barack Obama wrapped up his historic trip to Cuba, becoming the first American president to visit Cuba in nearly a century, as it was the first visit by a sitting American President since Calvin Coolidge in 1928 and and the first since a revolution led by Fidel Castro toppled a US-backed strongman in 1959. Garmendia Pena, Ambassador of Cuba, states that a Canadian PM visit has been in the works long before the announcement of United States President Barack Obama visit to Cuba. The Cuban ambassador praised the historic ties between Cuba and Canada. Canada is one of the few countries of North and South America that did not sever diplomatic ties with the communist island. Now Cuba is looking to show support for Canadian-Cuba relations with an invitation to the Canada’s PM to visit the small communist island country. Pena was also quick to add that Canadian businesses had nothing to fear from the ongoing talks with the United States, but that Canadian companies should see this as a great opportunity given that the United States lead embargo had discouraged many Canadian companies from doing business with Cuba, for fear of United States sanctions. The ambassador who was recently invited to speak by the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations (CORIM) said that, “The blockade is on its way out and there is a window where Canadian companies can come to explore if they are ready to invest,” showing that Cuba is open to Canadian business investment.
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • MAY 2016
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