Cuba’s Ambassador to India, Juan Carlos Marsán Aguilera, visited the Pragativadi office in Bhubaneswar on Saturday for talks on bilateral relations, BRICS cooperation and current international flashpoints — including new American tariff powers aimed at countries that continue to trade with Russia.
The visit followed his appearance in the city a day earlier as chief guest at the Indian Society for Cultural Co-operation and Friendship’s 85th Foundation Day. Together, the two stops framed Odisha as more than a ceremonial halt: a place to speak both to a friendship body and to a newsroom.
The Cuban Ambassador was hosted by Pragativadi’s Director Dr Mona Lisa Bal, Editorial Director Lalit Pattajoshi, Executive Editor Birupakshya Tripathy and Justice (Retd) Manoranjan Mohanty. The session with media persons ranged across trade, culture, regional institutions and the wider world order.
BRICS partner, medical power
The ambassador put Cuba’s new place in the BRICS orbit at the centre of his pitch.
“Cuba is a partner country to BRICS. We as a country during the Kazan Summit in 2024, Cuba was approved as a partner country. And on January 1st, 2025, Cuba became a member, a partner country to BRICS,” he said. “And we have cooperated a lot within this organisation in order to strengthen cooperation in many fields, in economic, in commercial, in financial, and also in cooperation.”
The grouping created the partner-country category at Kazan in October 2024; Cuba was among the first nations listed from 1 January 2025.
He said Cuba can give as well as take. “Cuba can contribute to BRICS. For example, we have long-standing experience in medical health. Cuba has a very strong medical health system in our country. We have created five vaccines against COVID-19. For more than 60 years, Cuba has provided medical services to many countries in the world, more than 100 countries.”
That argument tracks a line he has used elsewhere in India this year, pointing to biotechnology, healthcare, agro-industry, renewable energy, IT, sports and tourism as fields for deeper engagement.
“Nobody has the right to impose these tariffs”
Asked about current international developments, Ambassador Marsán Aguilera turned to the latest U.S. measures on Russia and third-country trade.
“I think we are against this world tariff, you know, that has been imposed by this administration. Nobody has the right to impose these tariffs on other countries for political reasons because, you know, there is a problem between the US Congress, which has approved this bill against Russia, and they would like to stop all trade between Russia and the rest of the countries. They don’t have the right to do that unilaterally, you know…”
The remarks land against a fast-moving Washington backdrop. On Friday, President Donald Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 after Congress cleared it earlier in the week. The law authorises tariffs of up to 500 percent on goods from Russia and up to 100 percent on goods from the largest buyers of Russian oil and gas — a list widely expected to include India and China — as well as countries judged to help Moscow evade energy sanctions. Supporters present it as a tool to cut revenue for Russia’s war in Ukraine; critics, including the Cuban envoy on Saturday, call secondary tariffs an illegitimate attempt to police other nations’ commerce.
The ambassador did not name India in the excerpted remarks, but the implication was plain in an Odisha newsroom: Havana rejects the idea that Washington can unilaterally tax or deter third-country trade with Russia.
A state newsroom as diplomatic stage
Hosts and guest also spoke about how newspapers, friendship societies and other regional institutions can carry an international relationship beyond New Delhi. No agreement was announced.
What the visit did produce was a public package of Cuban priorities: more trade and cultural contact with India, a claim of medical expertise inside BRICS, and an unambiguous no to what the envoy described as politically driven tariffs.
For Pragativadi, the call placed a live diplomatic argument inside a state daily’s office. Marsán Aguilera’s message was that Cuba wants India closer — and that closeness, in Havana’s telling, should not be dictated by a tariff regime designed in Washington.
