China’s Xi pledges support for Cuba on ‘core interests’

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Cuban counterpart have pledged mutual support over their fellow communist states’ “core interests.” Xi’s remarks came in a meeting Friday in Beijing with his Cuban counterpart Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez. Xi said China hoped to “strengthen coordination and cooperation” with Cuba. China generally defines core interests as the defense of its economic and political aims and control over territory it claims, especially self-governing Taiwan. No specific issues were mentioned in the Chinese government news release about their meeting. Diaz-Canel arrived in China after a visit to Moscow, where he and Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the “traditional friendship” between their sanctions-hit nations.