HAVANA (AP) – Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev arrived Sunday in Cuba for talks with President Fidel Castro, who has criticized the Soviet leader’s new pragmatic brand of communism.

Gorbachev’s blue and white Aeroflot jetliner touched down at Havana’s airport about 6 p.m. EDT and was greeted by cheering crowds.

Gorbachev was met by Castro, and the two stood side by side on the tarmac as a military band played the anthems of their two countries.

In Havana, Gorbachev will hold lengthy discussions with Castro. Castro has criticized Gorbachev’s pragmatic reforms, and Soviet officials have said they might reduce aid in the future to the Caribbean nation.

“We are going to discuss Fidel Castro’s performance, just as he is going to discuss our own performance,” Soviet spokesman Gennady Gerasimov told ABC-TV in an interview from Havana. “We will exchange views and experiences.”

Earlier Sunday, Gorbachev stopped in Ireland and held a “Shamrock and sickle summit” with Prime Mininster Charles Haughey, who suggested the next U.S.-Soviet summit be held in Ireland.

Gorbachev’s two-hour stop to the politically neutral, staunchly Roman Catholic Ireland was the first by a Kremlin leader. It was Gorbachev’s first overseas visit since a December trip to the United States.