Havana: Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said that he was ready to talk with US President-elect Joe Biden, who will be inaugurated on January 20, 2021, “on any subject”.
“We are willing to discuss any issue, what we are not willing to negotiate and what we will not give in on is the revolution, socialism and our sovereignty,” Diaz-Canel was quoted as saying in the media, while addressing the annual session of Parliament.
“Those principles will never be on the table,” he said.
In October, Biden said that the US needed a new Cuba policy, though it remained unclear how quickly he will move on implementing his policy on the island.
The former Vice President has also said he would eliminate incumbent President Donald Trump’s restrictions on remittances and travel to Cuba.
On November 9 soon after Biden’s victory in the presidential election, Diaz-Canel had tweeted: “We recognize that the US people have chosen a new direction in the presidential elections. We believe in the possibility of having a constructive bilateral relation while respecting our differences.”
In March 2016, Barack Obama became the first sitting US President to visit Cuba since 1928 following the warming of bilateral relations that began in December 2014, ending a 54-year stretch of hostility.
But tensions between Cuba and the US worsened after Trump took office in 2014.
