Donald Trump arrived on Monday at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, supported by the announcement of a memorandum of understanding signed with Iran, and immediately put Ukraine at the center of his diplomatic agenda as the next priority.
The movement has once again postponed the explicit focus on Cuba, which Trump had repeatedly positioned as the third step in his geopolitical sequence following Venezuela and Iran.
Trump closes Iran and opens the Ukrainian front
In joint statements with French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the summit – scheduled to take place from June 15 to 17 under French presidency – Trump announced that the U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to end the conflict in the Persian Gulf and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, although he did not specify when the text would be made public.
With that front nearing closure, Trump announced that he will turn his attention to Ukraine and Lebanon.
“We had a very good conversation yesterday with President Zelenski and President Putin, and I believe we might be able to do something. I truly believe it. Both are open to it,” Trump stated to the media alongside Macron.
The session this Tuesday -the most loaded at the summit- focuses on peace and security in Ukraine, with a working meeting between Trump and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
However, Moscow has already dampened expectations: Zelensky proposed a direct meeting with Putin at the G7, but Russia responded that it is "not ready" to negotiate.
At least 11 people were killed this Monday in Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian cities, and one of the bombings damaged the Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition in Kiev, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Macron expressed on French television channel TF1 his hope of convincing Trump to increase pressure on Russia.
"What I really want is to see Americans say: we stand with you, we will continue to help Ukraine, we will increase pressure on Russia," said the French president.
That statement from Macron, which clearly positions Ukraine as the immediate priority of transatlantic dialogue, is precisely what delays any shift in focus toward Cuba.
Cuba: Always the next one, never the current one
The shift towards Ukraine reignites a question that has been lingering over the Caribbean for months: and when will it be Cuba's turn?
The sequence had been announced with unusual clarity.
On March 5, Trump told Marco Rubio at the White House: "Your next project will be Cuba".
On March 27, at the FII Priority Summit in Miami Beach, he was more direct: "I built this great Army. I said I would never have to use it, but sometimes you have to do it. And Cuba is next, by the way, but pretend I didn't say that, please."
On June 4, from the Oval Office, he promised: “I like to do one thing at a time. We will deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and once that is resolved, we will make a brief stop on our way back. We will take care of that”.
Now, with the formal signing of the peace treaty with Iran scheduled for Friday, June 19, in Geneva and Ukraine taking center stage on the agenda, Cuba once again finds itself in the waiting room.
The island cannot wait
While Trump's diplomacy progresses on other fronts, Cuba is experiencing a crisis of historic proportions.
The capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3 cut between 26,000 and 70,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude oil per day — 80-90% of Cuban imports — resulting in endless blackouts and a generation deficit that has reached a record of over 2,100 megawatts.
Since January 2026, the Trump administration has imposed more than 240 sanctions against the regime, including secondary sanctions against GAESA and, on June 11, measures against CUPET, the Cuban state oil company.
On May 28, Axios revealed that the administration is preparing for a possible collapse of the regime "as soon as this summer", and Southern Command has conducted simulation exercises for potential unrest scenarios.
However, while Trump negotiates peace for Ukraine, Cubans continue to wait.
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