Cuba Calls US Nuclear Submarine Presence in Guantanamo Bay Raise Questions

US military base in Exploring Bay. (Wikimedia Commons/US Navy/Chief Mass Communication Specialist Bill Mesta)

JAKARTA - Cuban authorities on Tuesday said a United States nuclear submarine was present at its military base at Guantanamo Bay, calling the move a "provocative escalation of tensions", weeks after Washington alleged there was a Chinese spy base on the island.

"The presence of a nuclear submarine there at this time makes it necessary to wonder what the military rationale was behind this action in this peaceful region of the world," Cuba's foreign ministry said in a statement.

However, the Cuban Foreign Ministry did not specify whether the submarine was armed or not. However, it said the ship was there July 5-8.

Meanwhile, Washington did not confirm the presence or absence of submarines as Cuba had mentioned at its military base at Guantanamo.

Meanwhile, the US State Department declined to provide information about the movement of military assets.

But it said Cuba wanted to divert attention from the two-year anniversary of the biggest street protests to take place in Cuba since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. On Monday, Cuba accused the US of inciting the unrest.

"The efforts of the Government of Cuba to distract the world from the importance of this day are transparent and realizable," said a US State Department official.

The White House and the US Department of Defense did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Separately, American University of Washington Professor William LeoGrande said it was difficult to know the motivation for the submarine's movement, pointing to possible technical problems or a response to recent concerns about China.

"Overall this is an incident that is completely symptomatic of the fact that Cuba is once again caught between superpowers in what appears to be the emergence of a new Cold War," he said.

Cuba has long asked the US to close its 121-year-old naval base in the east of the island, along with the military prison Washington set up there in 2002.

Last month, Havana and Beijing rejected reports citing Washington officials that China was using Cuba as a spying base. The United States has provided no evidence of such a base.