Cuba and the United States will hold their highest level bilateral talks since Joe Biden became president later this week, with immigration to be the main topic, Havana said Tuesday.
The move comes after Washington announced last month that it was partially reopening its consulate in Havana, which had been closed since 2017 following alleged “sonic attacks.”
“On Thursday April 21 in Washington D.C. there will be a new round of migration conversations between delegations of #Cuba and United States,” the island nation’s foreign office said on Twitter.
Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio will head his country’s delegation.
The meeting will take place amid mass migration from Cuba, which is suffering its worst economic crisis in almost three decades.
Cuba is heavily reliant on tourism which substantially dried up during the coronavirus pandemic. While the sector has since picked up again, the pandemic’s effects are still being felt.
Since Nicaragua waived visas for Cubans last November, thousands have headed to the Central American country on a journey they hope will end in the United States.
The US customs office says more than 78,000 Cubans entered the country from Mexico between October 2021 and March this year.
Since 2017, Cubans have been required to make the costly trip to either Colombia or Guyana to apply for US visas.
Many have instead opted to make the perilous journey through Central America and enter the United States as undocumented migrants.
Havana accuses Washington of pressuring Latin American governments to demand transit visas from Cubans arriving at their airports.
Cuba has also hit out at the United States for failing to fulfil a commitment to authorize 20,000 immigrant visas a year to Cubans.
The Cuba-US meeting coincides with a trip by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Central America this week to discuss migration.
© Agence France-Presse
