By Dave Sherwood
HAVANA, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Cuba and the United States are in communication, a Cuban diplomat told Reuters on Monday, although he said the exchanges have not yet evolved into a formal “dialogue.”
Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, told Reuters the U.S. government was aware that Cuba was “ready to have a serious, meaningful and responsible dialogue.”
“We have had exchange of messages, we have embassies, we have had communications, but we can not say we have had a table of dialogue,” de Cossio told Reuters in an interview at the Foreign Ministry building in Havana.
De Cossio’s statements on Monday represent the first hint from Cuba that the two sides are in conversation, even if in a limited fashion, after tensions flared earlier this month between the two countries following the U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, long a close ally of Cuba.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said the United States had begun talks with “the highest people in Cuba,” days after declaring Cuba “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and threatening tariffs on any nation that sends oil to the communist-run island.
“I think we’re going to make a deal with Cuba,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Sunday.
Cuba had previously denied any talks with the United States.
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood in Havana, Editing by Natalia Siniawski)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.