Whether it’s Cuba or Iran, President Obama is a awful negotiator who has weakened the United States’ position overseas.
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The meeting, Rhodes noted, will allow the two presidents to discuss areas where the U.S. and Cuban governments have been able to initiate bilateral cooperation, and to address how both countries can expand space for people-to-people exchanges and greater commercial opportunities. Tuesday’s measure is expected to add another increase of between 10 and 20 percent, Cuban travel experts said. Some U.S. lines have received U.S. approval but are awaiting the green light from the Cuban government.
He said the Cubans have not objected to doing so and pointed out that Obama’s speech announcing the normalization of relations on December 17, 2014, was carried live on Cuban state television.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Tuesday that farm officials want to lay the groundwork so American agricultural exporters can seize new opportunities in Cuba if the trade embargo on the country is lifted.
First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia will be joining President Barack Obama next week on his historic trip to Cuba.
Dozens of US lawmakers, including a handful of Republicans, will also travel with the president to Cuba along with USA business leaders and some Cuban-Americans, Rhodes said, arguing that their inclusion reflected growing support in the USA for lifting the generations-old embargo. But they will be required to obtain a US visa.
Any American can now travel to Cuba under 12 categories of legally permissible purposes, which include professional, religious and journalistic activities.
After that speech, Obama will meet with members of Cuban civil society, including rights activists (whom the White House has not yet named). White House officials confirm Obama will not meet with Castro’s older brother, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. US banks will be allowed to process Cuban transactions that pass through the USA financial system. Many banks have refused to do Cuba-related business because of the fear of USA litigation that has cost some banks hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.
“You now have given more sanctions relief to the Castro regime, but we ask nothing in return”, Diaz-Balart said.
“We are making it easier for the Cuban economy to open up to the global economy”, Rhodes said.
But Rhodes could not confirm whether the event, which will take place at Havana’s legendary Gran Teatro, would actually be carried by Cuba’s state-run media, saying, “We’ll see how that transpires”.
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Information for this article was contributed by Michael Weissenstein and Josh Lederman of The Associated Press; by Scott Lanman, Margaret Talev and Andrew Mayeda of Bloomberg News; and by Karen DeYoung of The Washington Post.
