The GDR and socialist Cuba established formal diplomatic relations in 1963 and embassies opened in Havana and East Berlin that same year. Fidel Castro and Erich Honecker met for several official visits in both East Germany and Cuba. This photograph shows the East German party and government delegation arriving in Havana on an East German Interflug plane in February 1974. During the visit, Honecker and Castro signed a “declaration on the strengthening of friendship and the deepening of cooperation between the GDR and the Cuban Republic.” Cuba sent students and subsequently also laborers to the GDR while the GDR imported its sugar, citrus fruit and supported Cuban industry by supplying technology and technical knowledge.