A Russian nuclear submarine and other warships arrived in Cuba on Wednesday for a five-day visit to the island in a show of force amid rising tensions between the United States and Russia.

The Kazan submarine, which Cuba says does not carry nuclear weapons, was accompanied by the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, as well as an oil tanker and a rescue tug.

The Kazan and the Admiral Gorshkov, one of Russia's most modern warships, could be seen near Havana, about 90 miles off the southern coast of Florida.

The tanker Pashin and a tugboat entered the harbor early on Wednesday, an AFP reporter said.

Cuba's communist government announced that Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez will meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday in Moscow as the two former Cold War allies seek to strengthen their ties.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last month at the annual May 9 military parade on Red Square near the Kremlin.

Cuba was an important client state of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The deployment of Soviet nuclear missile facilities on the island triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when Washington and Moscow came close to war.

Relations between Russia and Cuba have become closer since the meeting between Diaz-Canel and Putin in 2022.