MEXICAN President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that her country is working to restart oil shipments to Cuba.

It was the day Russia delivered the first shipment of oil to reach the Caribbean island in months following the intensification of the illegal blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba since January.

Speaking to a press conference in Mexico City, President Sheinbaum said her country has the right to provide fuel to its ally without external interference and that work was taking place to get vital shipments of oil to Cuba.

President Sheinbaum drew a distinction between different forms of support that could be offered to Cuba.

She said: “One thing is humanitarian aid and the other is commercial agreements that we have with Cuba and that also has to do with the shipment of oil.”

President Sheinbaum said the commercial agreements were not new and had been in place “for decades.”

The Mexican president reaffirmed Mexico’s belief in the Cuban people’s right to self-determination and the deep, historical bilateral relationship between Mexico and Cuba.

She said: “No-one should intercede, and if there is any problem related to that, there are multilateral organisations. There should not be the intervention of one country over another country.

“And the Mexico-Cuba relationship is historical. It is not new, it is historical and we are going to continue supporting the Cuban people,” the president added.

Cuba has faced severe challenges including island-wide blackouts in recent weeks after US President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any country providing or selling oil to Cuba.

This followed an illegal and unprovoked attack on Venezuela by the US on January 3 against Venezuela, during which 100 people were killed and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores were kidnapped.

Venezuela had previously provided large quantities of oil to Cuba.

Cubans were already grappling with decades of an illegal blockade by the US.