President congratulates Cuba on election success

President Xi Jinping on Thursday sent messages of congratulations to Cuban leaders on their country's success in holding an extraordinary legislative session of the National Assembly of People's Power and electing a president of the Republic of Cuba.

In the messages, sent to First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba Raul Castro Ruz and newly elected Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that for more than half a century, the peoples of China and Cuba have forged a profound friendship.

The two countries, Xi added, have become good friends, good partners and good brothers who treat each other with sincerity and mutual trust and share a common destiny.

Xi stressed that he attaches great importance to the development of China-Cuba relations and is willing to maintain close communication with First Secretary Raul Castro to jointly write a new chapter of China-Cuba friendship in the new era.

Xi also said that he is ready to make joint efforts with Diaz-Canel to continuously expand the breadth and depth of bilateral cooperation and push for steady and sustained development of bilateral relations.

Diaz-Canel was elected on Thursday to serve in the newly created post of president of the Republic of Cuba at the session. The 605-member National Assembly, considered Cuba's highest governing body, meets regularly twice a year and holds extraordinary sessions as needed.

He served as president of the Council of State and Ministers before this election, and he will be in office through 2023.

Diaz-Canel graduated in 1982 from the University of Las Villas in Cuba as an electronics engineer. He was appointed by Raul Castro in 2009 as minister of higher education, and three years later vice-president of the Council of Ministers in charge of education, science, culture and sports.