US-Cuba deal

US President-Elect Donald Trump warned in a tweet on Monday that he would terminate the 2014 deal that reopened Cuban-American relations if Havana is unwilling to negotiate a better agreement. The tweet reaffirms Trump's hardliner stance on US-Cuba relations, which became evident on Saturday when he released a statement in response to Fidel Castro's death that condemned him for oppressing his people.

Cuba and the United States restored diplomatic relations on 20 July 2015, which had been severed in 1961 during the Cold War. US diplomatic representation in Cuba is handled by the United States Embassy in Havana, and there is a similar Cuban Embassy in Washington, DC. The United States, however, continues to maintain its commercial, economic, and financial embargo, which makes it illegal for US. corporations to do business with Cuba.

Although the U.S. President, Barack Obama, has called for the ending of the embargo, US law requires congressional approval to end the embargo. Following the Cuban Revolution of 1959, bilateral relations deteriorated substantially. In 1961, the US severed diplomatic ties with Cuba and began pursuing covert operations to topple the Communist regime. Moreover, the U.S. imposed and subsequently tightened a comprehensive set of restrictions and bans vis-à-vis the Cuban regime as retaliation for the nationalisation of US corporations' property by Cuba.

Meanwhile, several organizations, including a nearly unanimous UN General Assembly, have called for "an end to the United States' decades-long economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba." On 17th December 2014, US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro announced the beginning of a process of normalizing relations between Cuba and the US, which media sources have named "the Cuban Thaw".

Negotiated in secret in Canada and Vatican City over preceding months, and with the assistance of Pope Francis, the agreement led to the lifting of some US travel restrictions, fewer restrictions on remittances, US banks access to the Cuban financial system, and the establishment of a US embassy in Havana, which closed after Cuba became closely allied with the USSR in 1961. The countries' respective "interests sections" in one another's capitals were upgraded to embassies on 20 July 2015. On 20 March 2016, President Barack Obama visited Cuba, becoming the first President in 80 years to visit the island, according to Wikipedia.