Obama’s Cuba step

The move is going to benefit the region and Cuban medical teams are ever welcome to Pakistan in our times of need

Few outside the aid and emergency relief business will be aware that Cuba has a close and enduring link with Pakistan. Cuban doctors and other medical staff have come to our aid in virtually every major natural disaster we have suffered in the last 20 years. They were some of the first to arrive after the 2005 earthquake and they stayed longer than virtually all other foreign medical aid. Peripheral as that may seem, it is illustrative of the global village we live in today, and our friends the Cubans who have been the subject of American sanctions for more than half a century, are about to find life getting a little easier. For the last 18 months, there have been back-channel negotiations between the US and the Cuban government aimed at normalising diplomatic relations. The negotiations were supported by Pope Francis and the Vatican and many of the meetings were hosted by the Canadians, which came to light with a prisoner exchange on December 17. Both countries are to set up diplomatic missions and the move marks the biggest change in American foreign policy for 50 years.

American relations with Cuba were long overdue for major revision. There will be an easing of trade and financial restrictions as well as travel both ways. Cuban cigars will once again be on sale in the US. Cuba is still regarded by America as a state sponsor of terrorism, but this is under urgent review following these developments. It remains a one-party Communist state, with the media tightly controlled, democracy nowhere on the radar. Despite these paradoxes — and hitherto impediments — the time was right for Cuba and America to re-boot relations. Washington was out of step with its regional and international partners vis-a-vis Cuban relations, but the move will not be popular with all Cuban-Americans or Republicans in both Congress and the Senate. Viewed pragmatically, this is a move that is going to benefit the region and the hemisphere, and Cuban medical teams are ever welcome to Pakistan in our times of need.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th,  2014.

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