American and Cuban officials meet ahead of Cuban leader’s trip to UN meeting in New York
Top American and Cuban officials met this week in Washington to discuss migration and other issues in a previously undisclosed meeting ahead of the expected visit of Cuba’s handpicked president to participate in a gathering at the United Nations in New York.
The U.S. Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian A. Nichols, met with Cuban Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossío on Monday to discuss human rights, migration, “and other issues of bilateral interest,” a State Department spokesperson told the Miami Herald.
Fernández de Cossío traveled to the United States to work on planning Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel’s trip to New York. Diaz-Canel is expected to attend several events at the United Nations and speak to foreign leaders at the General Assembly next week. On Tuesday, Fernández de Cossío gave a talk about the prospects for the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC.
Relations between the two countries remain cold, as the Biden administration has sanctioned several Cuban military and police agencies and officials for human-rights violations and has kept in place other measures imposed by Donald Trump, including listing Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.
High-level engagements between the two countries are rare and tied to U.S. national security issues such as migration or counter-narcotics efforts.
Cuba’s support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine is another irritant in the relationship. Cuba’s ambassador to Moscow said Thursday the Cuban government would not stop residents on the island from enlisting in the Russian army to fight in Ukraine if they sign a contract and do it “legally,” despite earlier assurances Cuba would not allow its citizens to be recruited as mercenaries.
The State Department official did not say if the issue came up during the Monday meeting but said the administration is aware of reports about Cubans fighting for Russia and is “monitoring the situation.”
