A Japanese Communist Party delegation to Cuba led by Vice Chair Ogata held talks with Machado Ventura, Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) and First Vice-president of the Council of State and Ministers, in Havana on December 9.

The talks were held during the JCP delegation’s stay in Cuba from December 6 to 11 at the invitation of the PCC.

Machado stated that the first summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), recently held in Caracas, Venezuela, shows the emergence of a genuine independence of South America, which had been semi-independent for the last 200 years. Ogata responded by pointing out that it may mean the end of the applicability of the Monroe Doctrine.

On December 7, the JCP delegation met with Ramón Balaguer, PCC CC Secretariat member and the head of the PCC CC Foreign Relations Department.

Balaguer, stating that a course toward socialism should be determined independently, stressed the significance of the recent 6th PCC Congress and the First National Conference of the Cuban political organization, scheduled to be held in January.

Ogata pointed to the significance of the positive role played by Cuba in the ongoing major changes in Latin American countries and expressed his hope for a success in the Cuban endeavor to work toward socialism.

The two agreed to develop their parties’ relations to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons and on other international tasks.

The JCP delegation also met with Osvaldo Martinez, president of the Economic Affairs Commission of the National Assembly, and Elba Rosa Pérez, PCC CC member and the head of the PCC CC Science Department.