have no choice but to engage the United States in negotiations to normalize relations, despite a decade of diplomatic whiplash and mixed messages from Washington.
In an interview with The Hill, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla responded to a question posed by former Obama administration adviser Ben Rhodes on whether Cuban officials would “ever, ever negotiate anything with America ever again after this?”
“We will have to,” said Rodríguez Parrilla, who was in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.
“We will have to, first, because there is a historical trend that will, at some point, force us to reestablish dialogue and lift the blockade.”
After a historic and controversial push to normalize relations between Washington and Havana under former President Obama, the Trump administration did an about-face, most famously adding Cuba to a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The Biden administration, though less hawkish than the Trump administration, has not taken major steps to normalize relations, including keeping Cuba on the terrorism watchlist.
“We shouldn’t expect President Biden to return to the policies of President Obama. One would have expected President Biden to implement his own policy, adjusted to his electoral platform, to his commitments with his voters, to the current reality of the international situation,” said Rodríguez Parrilla.
“What has been a regrettable surprise is that President Biden continues to apply, precisely, the adverse, abusive, failed policies that do not bring the United States closer to any result [inherited from] President Trump, who is [Biden’s] political antipode,” he added.
Still, the Biden administration has softened some of its predecessor’s Cuba policies, often despite domestic political pressure.
“President Biden’s policy toward Cuba is rooted in supporting the Cuban people and protecting human rights. Our approach to Cuba, just like any other country, takes into account various current political, economic, and security factors. Over the past few years, conditions in Cuba and in the region have changed, and we have adapted our Cuba policy accordingly,” a National Security Council spokesperson told The Hill.
In May, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) panned a Biden administration announcement that some travel restrictions to the island were being lifted, while celebrating the resumption of the Cuban Family Reunification Parole program, which streamlines legal immigration for Cubans with family in the United States.