Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed Friday that his government is in talks with the US — after President Trump floated a “friendly takeover” of the Communist island.
“These talks have been aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences we have between the two nations,” Diaz-Canel said. “International factors that have facilitated these exchanges.”
He said that the talks are being conducted “on the basis of equality and respect for both countries’ political systems, sovereignty and self-determination of our governments.”
Trump cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to the island after his Jan. 3 raid on Caracas, which toppled socialist ally Nicholas Maduro, and has threatened to tariff any country that sells oil to Cuba.
“It may be a friendly takeover. It may not be a friendly takeover,” Trump said Monday. “It wouldn’t matter because they’re really in — they’re down to, as they say, fumes. They have no energy. They have no money. They’re in deep trouble on a humanitarian basis.”