Amid long-strained relations, Cuban foreign minister says, 'We will have to' negotiate with the U.S.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla said that his country has no choice other than to engage in negotiations with the United States to normalize relations despite an especially tense decade with mixed responses from the White House.

Former Obama administration Adviser Ben Rhodes on Tuesday during the United Nations General Assembly conference asked Rodríguez Parrilla whether Cuban authorities would "ever, ever negotiate anything with America ever again," according to The Hill.

"We will have to," Rodríguez Parrilla responded. "We will have to, first, because there is a historical trend that will, at some point, force us to reestablish dialogue and lift the blockade."

The Obama administration pushed to normalize relations between D.C. and Havana, but the Trump White House referred course and added Cuba to the state terrorism sponsor list. The Biden administration has not been as extreme on Cuba as the Trump administration, but it does not show signs it will normalize relations.

"We shouldn’t expect President Biden to return to the policies of President Obama," Rodríguez Parrilla said. "What has been a regrettable surprise is that President Biden continues to apply, precisely, the adverse, abusive, failed policies that do not bring the United States closer to any result [inherited from] President Trump, who is [Biden’s] political antipode."

Even Senate Democrats, such as Cuban American Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) have opposed any efforts from the Biden administration to normalize relations with the communist island country.