By Peter Fabricius.
Independent Online.
March 26 2001 at 11:40PM.
Havana - Cuban President Fidel Castro unexpectedly arrived at the airport
here to greet President Thabo Mbeki on his arrival on Monday for the first visit
to Cuba by a South African head of state.
Officials had expected Cuban Vice-President Carlos Lage Davila to receive
Mbeki, who would then meet Castro for bilateral talks after an official
welcoming ceremony on Tuesday.
But, Mbeki's spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said on Monday night Castro himself
had greeted Mbeki - a sign of the warm relations between the two countries - and
then "whisked him away" for private talks. Khumalo said Mbeki was due
to visit a biotechnology research institute on Monday.
Mbeki was accompanied by several South African ministers and officials.
Sign of the warm relations between the two countries
On Tuesday, Castro will bestow Cuba's highest award, the Jose Marti medal,
on Mbeki and the two governments will sign co-operation agreements in health,
education and sport.
During his three days in Cuba, Mbeki will also unveil a bust of the African
National Congress late-president Oliver Tambo at the African Memorial Park,
which is dedicated to leaders of Africa's liberation struggle.
He will deliver a lecture at the University of Havana on the Millennium
Africa Programme and the African renaissance, and visit a petrochemical
processing plant.
But, the visit is mainly intended to cement the warm relations between the
two countries, which are based on "the prominent and decisive role played
by Cuba in the struggle and victory against apartheid and colonialism in
southern Africa", an official said. - Foreign Service
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