‘First part of talks’ between USSR, Cuba on withdrawal of training brigade fruitless
This news story first came out 30 years ago to the day, and we are publishing it today as part of Interfax's project, "Timeline of the Last Days of USSR. This Day 30 Years Ago." The project's goal is to reconstruct as fully as possible the timeline of the last few months of 1991 and to give everyone interested in understanding the historical processes of that period the opportunity to study and analyze the events that led to and accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the new Russian state. The complete timeline can be found in Russian.
MOSCOW. Dec 2 (Interfax) – Ambassador-at-Large Vyacheslav Ustinov, who heads the Soviet delegation at negotiations on the withdrawal of a Soviet training brigade from Cuba, has returned from Havana to Moscow, Interfax has learned.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry said the negotiations that began on November 14 had not yet yielded any specific results, just that "their first part is over."
According to unofficial sources, the parties managed only to exchange opinions and proposals on the issue. The delegations failed to find common ground since Havana insists on linking the withdrawal of 3,000 Soviet military personnel with the closure of the U.S. military base Guantanamo on Cuba. The USSR assumes that the both problems should be solved, but there is no "historical connection" between them.
The ministry said the negotiations would resume shortly.