14ymedio, Havana, January 31, 2024 — The visit to Havana of the Minister of Defense of Belarus, Víctor Jrenin, resulted in speeches, medals and many photographs, but no relevant agreements. In contrast to the discretion of the official Cuban press, the media of the European country have followed step by step the journey of the Belarusian entourage through facilities of the Armed Forces of the Island and have celebrated the “approach.”
Jrenin, who has been in Cuba since last Saturday, signed with his Cuban counterpart, General Álvaro López Miera, a “military cooperation document” similar to the one that, last June and after the uprising of the Wagner group of mercenaries against Moscow, both ministers signed in Minsk. The brief statement of the Belarusian military does not reveal any of the points of the agreement but is accompanied by a video of the ceremony.
López Miera decorated Jrenin on Tuesday with the Playa Girón* order, granted with the consent of Miguel Díaz-Canel, as shown on the Telegram channel of the Belarusian military. Jrenin received the distinction, which he attributed to the good “daily martial work of all the soldiers of the Belarusian Army” and promised to do “everything possible to guarantee peace and security.”
The highlight of the visit was Jrenin’s speech at the Máximo Gómez Academy of the Cuban Army, where he met with “cadets who studied in Minsk” – it is not revealed when – whom the minister “personally” invited to visit the Belarusian capital soon to “remember their years as students.”
In his press conference with Cuban journalists, Jrenin also did not reveal the reason for his s
