"We have always opposed various kinds of restrictions, embargoes, blockades, and so on. We have always supported on international platforms, and we see that Cuba takes the same position in relation to our country, in relation to Russia," Putin said.
The President of Russia noted that "all this is the result of traditional friendship, which was founded by comrade Fidel Castro."
Diaz-Canel also stressed that Cuban has a great love for Russia and condemned Western sanctions that have been imposed against both Moscow and Havana in recent years.
"I would like to share my conviction with you: Russia can always rely on Cuba," the president said at the opening ceremony of an exhibition of Russian and Soviet artists who worked in Cuba.
The Cuban president took part in the ceremony alongside the speaker of the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, Valentina Matvienko.
Cuban flag hanging in Havana
© Flickr / Matt Smith
Later in the day, the Cuban leader will hold talks with President Vladimir Putin to discuss different bilateral topics, including certain aspects of military-technical cooperation between the countries, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Putin and Diaz-Canel will also take part in a ceremony in Moscow to unveil a monument to Fidel Castro, one of the fathers of the Cuban revolutionary movement, who was the country's leader from 1959 to 2008 and died in 2016.
The Cuban president is visiting Russia accompanied by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, Deputy Prime Minister Alejandro Gil Fernandez, Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz and other high-ranking officials.