Cuba, subject to a US trade embargo since 1962, was included again in 2021 on the US list of “terrorism”
Text: RFI/AFP
Cuba reiterated this Tuesday its willingness to dialogue with the United States, a few weeks before Republican President Donald Trump takes office, who during his first term stopped the historic rapprochement between both countries that began just ten years ago by Democrat Barack Obama.
«It will not be Cuba that will propose or that will take the initiative to suspend the existing dialogues, to suspend the existing cooperation. Not even the discreet exchanges on some sensitive issues,” said Cuban Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, at a press conference in Havana.
«We will be attentive to the attitude that the new government assumes but Cuba’s disposition will continue to be the same that we have had throughout these 64 years. Willing to develop with the United States a relationship that is serious, respectful between the two countries and that of course protects the sovereign interests of both,” added the vice minister.
His statements come on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the announcement of the historic rapprochement between Washington and Havana.
On December 17, 2014, Cuban leader Raúl Castro (2006-2021) and Barack Obama (2008-2016) announced the beginning of a rapprochement that would lead to the reestablishment of diplomatic relations in 2015, after more than half a century of confrontation.
*Read also: The US names Cuba as a country that sponsors terrorism for the fourth consecutive year
This process of thawing bilateral relations was later stopped by magnate Donald Trump, who harshly reinforced economic sanctions against the communist-ruled country. The Republican will return to command the White House starting January 20.
Cuba, subject to a US trade embargo since 1962, was again included in 2021 on the “black list of countries that support terrorism”, which blocks financial and economic flows to the island of 10 million inhabitants.
The vice minister also criticized those in the United States who think that “the time has come to see the destruction of Cuba.”
“In four years the Trump government will be over and revolutionary Cuba, socialist Cuba, will be here,” he highlighted.
Cuba has been going through a deep economic crisis for four years, the worst since the fall of the Soviet Union, its former ally, in the 1990s. It has suffered shortages of all kinds, frequent power outages throughout the country, and an unprecedented wave of emigration.
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