Havana - The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, Raul Castro, and President Miguel Diaz-Canel received Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, on Tuesday, on an official visit to the island.

The Cuban leaders and the senior Russian official exchanged views on the excellent state of relations between Havana and Moscow, and their prospective development.

For his part, the spokesman for the Russian Security Council, Evgueni Anoshin, assured that during the meeting, there was an exchange of opinions on a wide range of issues of Russian-Cuban cooperation, particularly in the area of security, as well as on current international affairs.

Also participating in the meeting were Alexandr Venediktov, deputy secretary of the Security Council of Russia, and Russian Ambassador to Cuba Andrei Guskov.

In the morning of October 15, Patrushev placed a floral wreath at the Memorial to the Soviet Internationalist Soldier in Havana, accompanied by Brigadier General Lazaro Alvarez, deputy Interior minister.

Shortly thereafter, the secretary of the Russian Security Council signed a memorandum of understanding with Cuban Interior Minister, Vice Admiral Julio Cesar Gandarilla, for cooperation between the security apparatuses of both countries, an agreement that seeks to deepen trust between the two countries on security issues.

During the meeting, which was also attended by Corps General Alvaro Lopez Miera, first deputy minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) and Chief of its General Staff, information security, cooperation in the area of state border protection, strengthening of the Coast Guard and technical-military cooperation were discussed.

Delegations from Russia and Cuba also discussed the situation in Latin America, cooperation between Moscow and Havana in the fight against terrorism, as well as in the fight against organized crime, extremism and drug trafficking.

In turn, the document establishes regular exchanges between the two nations on international and regional security.

The signatories also agreed to hold consultations on the strategic priorities of Russia and Cuba, as well as on the issue of cooperation in the fight against international terrorism, transnational crime, illegal drug trafficking, human trafficking, arms smuggling, money laundering and economic crimes.