Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, held talks with Cuban Vice-President Ricardo Cabrisas about possibile joint ventures—chief among them a project by Dubai Ports World to build and operate a container terminal at the Port of Mariel, in order to relieve the bottleneck in Havana, 30 miles east.

In June, Brazil announced it would grant a $300 million loan for construction at Mariel. But it wasn’t clear whether that would cover Brazilian participation in the project, or be restricted to building and operating an offshore oil logistics center at the port.