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“For more than a year, secret talks had taken place between U.S. and Cuban officials both in Canada and at the Vatican. The Pope wrote letters to both Obama and Castro inviting them to resolve their situation through humanitarian efforts” (CNBC, December 17, 2014). “In their first-ever meeting at the Vatican in March, President  Barack Obama  and  Pope Francis  devoted a significant portion of their hour together to discussing a country thousands of miles away—Cuba—a fact that wasn’t disclosed until Wednesday.

China’s Foreign Minister recently was quoted in the China Daily, “China has joined India in helping the Russian economy… ‘If the Russian side needs, we will provide necessary assistance within our capacity’… The Chinese statement comes after India, earlier this month, bought 12 nuclear reactors from Russian firm Rosatom and launched joint production of military helicopters” (EU Observer, December 22, 2014).