WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday 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 U.S. 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 U.S. travel and remittances to the island nation and sought to dissuade regional allies from contracting Cuban doctors.
China, where Trump is traveling this week to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, has called on Washington to immediately end its embargo and sanctions on Havana.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Jacob Bogage; Additional reporting by Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo, Editing by Doina Chiacu and Chizu Nomiyama )
