The US-Cuba detente—after nearly a half-century of hostilities, including embargo on essential goods being exported from the US to the island nation—signals the changing priorities of the two countries. The US-Cuba relations had been a vestige of the Cold War ever since it ended over a quarter-century ago—for the US, Cuba had since ceased being a strategic threat while the island nation could depend only on a handful of allies in an increasingly globalised world.
In fact, it is largely these two concerns that have brought about the thaw—diplomatic relations will be restored while sales and exports to Cuba from the US will be “expanded”, as per Washington, DC. While the normalisation of ties was mediated by Canada and Pope Francis, there were pressing reasons on both sides to move in that direction. For Cuba, the most immediate crisis was of food, especially animal proteins, and oil. With the US embargo, Cubans have, for 5 decades, lived on strictly rationed food supplies.
The easing of relations, commodity exports cited in NPR and The Financial Times reports believe, will improve Cubans’ access to food and crush the thriving black market in the country. Similarly, given the falling crude prices, Cuba can’t expect Venezuela and Russia, both oil-producing nations and long-standing allies, to keep up their support. On the US side, though the normalising of relations is bound to be seen as a failure of its Cuba policy, the business opportunity in better ties with the latter are becoming difficult to ignore as the home economy recovers—it just had to have the first-movers advantage as Cuba went looking for new friends. Besides, the Cuban problem—of being a Soviet base to attack America—no longer exists and the communist dictatorship in the country only matters to a few in the US.