HAVANA — Cuban officials have formally confirmed that a high-level diplomatic meeting between Cuban and U.S. government delegations was recently held in the Cuban capital, according to a statement reported by the country’s leading state-run newspaper.
Alejandro Garcia del Toro, deputy director general for U.S. affairs at Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, shared details of the closed-door talks with Granma, the official daily of the Cuban Communist Party, on Monday. He confirmed that both sides dispatched senior officials to lead their respective delegations: the U.S. side was led by State Department assistant secretaries, while Cuba’s delegation was headed by a deputy foreign minister.
Garcia explained that the discussions were conducted with deliberate discretion, a choice rooted in the Cuban government’s classification of the bilateral negotiations as a sensitive topic. He emphasized that the exchange unfolded in a constructive, respectful framework: neither side imposed arbitrary deadlines for progress nor placed coercive demands on the other, with all interactions carried out in a professional manner.
For the Cuban negotiating team, Garcia noted, the number one priority for discussion was the full removal of the U.S. energy blockade imposed on the island nation. The measure in question refers to U.S. sanctions that target third-party countries that engage in fuel exports to Cuba.
Garcia reaffirmed Cuba’s longstanding stance that this U.S. policy of economic coercion represents an unjustified collective punishment that harms the entirety of the Cuban civilian population. Beyond its impact on Cuba, he added, the sanctions framework also functions as a form of global blackmail against sovereign nations, which hold clear legal right to sell fuel to Cuba under established international free trade rules.