WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (May 12) said Cuba was asking for help and “we are going to talk”, without providing any more detail.
“No Republican has ever spoken to me about Cuba, which is a failed country and only heading in one direction – down! Cuba is asking for help, and we are going to talk!!! In the meantime, I’m off to China!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Representatives for the White House and the State Department could not be immediately reached for comment. Representatives for Havana also could not be immediately reached.
Trump had threatened that Cuba was “next” after the US military seized the leader of longtime Cuban ally Venezuela earlier this year, and has since imposed fresh financial sanctions and expanded others. His administration has also imposed a fuel blockade, curtailed US travel and remittances to the island nation and sought to dissuade regional allies from contracting Cuban doctors.
China, where Trump is travelling this week to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, has called on Washington to immediately end its embargo and sanctions on Havana.