Russia's Lavrov arrives in Cuba on Latin America tour

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived Monday in Havana, Cuban authorities said, as he kicks off a Latin America tour that will also take him to Venezuela and Brazil.

Russia and Cuba, both subject to Western sanctions, have intensified their relations since 2022, with an isolated Moscow seeking new political allies and trading partners since its invasion of Ukraine.

Lavrov "arrived today in Cuba. This is his ninth visit to our country," the country's foreign ministry said in a brief statement.

A newspaper belonging to the island nation's ruling Communist Party said the visit came as "both nations face intensified economic and commercial sanctions by the United States and some of its allies."

Cuba has been battling sky-high inflation and shortages since the pandemic, which -- plus a tightening of US sanctions in 2021, combined with structural weaknesses -- sent the economy into a tailspin.

The two countries have signed around a dozen agreements to relaunch trade relations in construction, information technology, banking, sugar, transport and tourism.

It is Lavrov's second visit to Cuba in a year, following a November 2022 trip by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel to see his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

In April 2023, Diaz-Canel assured Moscow of "Cuba's unconditional support" in its "clash with the West."

The two communist entities were close allies during the Cold War, but that cooperation was abruptly halted in 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet bloc.

According to Russian figures, commercial exchanges between the two countries reached $450 million in 2022, with 90 percent of that in sales of oil and soybean oil to the island nation.

Lavrov will meet with Diaz-Canel before traveling to Venezuela on Tuesday and then Brazil for the G20 summit.