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Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla stated this Tuesday that the talks between Havana and Washington remain stalled and show no signs of progress, while he announced that Cuba will request a session of the United Nations General Assembly for July 7 with the aim of denouncing the tightening of U.S. sanctions.
During a press conference in Havana, the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that bilateral contacts have not yielded results and accused President Donald Trump's administration of combining diplomatic dialogue with a policy of increasing pressure on the island.
"The conversations between Cuba and the U.S. show no progress. The behavior of the U.S. government delegations—generally respectful—has been accompanied by constant threats against Cuba, the implementation of coercive measures, and offensive statements regarding the independence of our country," stated, according to Cubadebate.
Despite that outlook, Rodríguez stated that the Cuban government remains willing to engage in dialogue.
"Cuba remains open to dialogue and the peaceful resolution of differences, based on mutual respect and non-interference in Cuba's internal affairs," he stated.
So far, the State Department has not publicly responded to the statements made by the chancellor, according to the agency Reuters.
The conversations between both governments officially began on March 13, 2026, when Havana confirmed the opening of an exploratory channel that the Deputy Foreign Minister, Josefina Vidal, described at that time as a "very preliminary" stage. Since then, the Trump administration has successively expanded sanctions against Cuba, including energy restrictions and new measures directed at state entities and high-ranking officials of the regime.
In that context, Rodríguez announced that Cuba would request the convening of an extraordinary session of the UN General Assembly focusing on the need to end the U.S. embargo.
"We have decided to request a session of the United Nations General Assembly," said the chancellor, who accused the U.S. mission to the UN and its embassies of exerting diplomatic pressure in recent weeks to prevent the meeting from taking place.
According to the minister, Washington is distributing several documents among member states aimed at discrediting the Cuban initiative. Rodríguez presented three of these texts during the conference, titled "It's Time to Change in Cuba," "The Regime Must Reform, Don't Vote with Your Propaganda," and another that, he claimed, attempts to link Cuba to the war in Ukraine.
"They are trying to censor her voice and her right to speak on a matter directly related to international peace and security and the well-being of the entire world," she stated in reference to the member countries of the United Nations.
The chancellor also referred to the package of 176 economic measures recently approved by the National Assembly and rejected that these measures are a response to pressures from Washington.
"Adoptions are a matter of sovereignty. We have not heard and are not interested in the opinion of the United States," he stated.
Rodríguez also stated that U.S. sanctions resulted in losses exceeding 7 billion dollars during 2025 and raised the cumulative cost of the embargo to more than 170 billion dollars for the Cuban economy, according to government calculations.
The extraordinary session requested by Havana is scheduled for July 7, several months before the traditional annual voting by the General Assembly on the embargo, which typically takes place in October.
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