Cuban president to address UN next month: report

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel is due to attend the United Nations General Assembly in September, according to a Monday report by the Miami Herald.

Díaz-Canel’s high-profile New York trip will underscore the cold relationship between the island and the Biden administration, which has avoided major policy shifts on Cuba.

While the two countries have advanced modest collaboration agreements on areas such as migration, any return to Obama-era rapprochement has all but been abandoned on both sides of the Straits of Florida.

Two issues are driving the impasse: The Biden White House has maintained Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation slapped on it by former President Trump, and Cuba has not satisfied U.S. demands regarding political prisoners on the island.

Last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken marked the second anniversary of the July 11 protests in Cuba with a call for the release of political prisoners.

Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío earlier this month dismissed U.S. concerns on the issue, saying Cuba would be open to a “reciprocal conversation” on prisoners in either country.

“I don’t believe that there’s truly a willingness to improve the relationship,” Fernández de Cossío told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.

“We could speak of human rights between the two countries. We have serious concerns about the respect of human rights in the United States. It’s an issue which we are ready to discuss, but it has to be a comprehensive conversation,” said Fernández de Cossío.

Díaz-Canel’s visit to the General Assembly, his second, is unlikely to disentangle those knots.

Yet his presence comes amid a Cuban diplomatic push to raise the country’s profile.

Immediately before heading to New York, Díaz-Canel is due to host a Group of 77 summit in Havana, where the group’s 123 member nations and China will rally ahead of the General Assembly.