The U.S. Embassy didn\u2019t expand on what that support could entail. Global Affairs Canada didn\u2019t release a readout of the meeting, nor did it answer questions about the U.S. urging Canada to offer \u201csupport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Canadian ambassador Mark Entwistle, who served as Ottawa\u2019s top diplomat in Havana in the 1990s, said that the readout shows an attempt by the Trump administration to build a collection of countries that wouldn\u2019t condemn the U.S. if it were to take action against Cuba, or that would otherwise support regime change in Cuba.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey won\u2019t get that from the Europeans, they won\u2019t get that from the Mexicans,\u201d he said. \u201cMy read of that language was that they were seeking some kind of demonstration or expression of support of regime change.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/568A0136_46-1024x683.jpg\")
Prime Minister Mark Carney has been reluctant to criticize U.S. actions on the world stage. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade<\/p>\n
Entwistle said that such support would be counter to Canada\u2019s decades-long position to Cuba.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not totally sure what the Americans believe or think that they would have an expectation of what Canada can do in this situation,\u201d Entwistle said. \u201cPartly because when you go back to the basics, Canada\u2019s relationship with Cuba is just totally different than that of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
For decades, Canada\u2019s relationship with Cuba diverged with how the U.S. engaged with the island country, as Ottawa\u2019s diplomatic links with Havana continued after the U.S. put an embargo in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would be absolutely stupefied if there was any consideration of going any way along the road to supporting some kind of regime change posture in Cuba,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trump has suggested that Cuba<\/a> is \u201cready to fall,\u201d and remarked<\/a> that he will be the American president to intervene in Cuba after decades of others considering such an action. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a diplomatic solution is preferable, but added that the likelihood of that happening is \u201cnot high.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Last month, the U.S. charged former Cuban president Ra\u00fal Castro, 94, for his alleged involvement in the 1996 downing of two planes operated by a group opposed to the Cuban government.\u00a0<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s strategic silence<\/p>\n When the Trump administration conducted a raid in Venezuela and launched airstrikes in Iran, Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.) and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand (Oakville East, Ont.) offered no condemnation of the actions. Carney initially supported Iran strikes, noting that he did so \u201cwith regret.\u201d After the raid in Venezuela, Carney said he \u201cwelcomes the opportunity for freedom, democracy, peace, and prosperity for the Venezuelan people.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At stake is the balance between Canada\u2019s support for territorial integrity outlined in Carney\u2019s Davos address and an unwillingness to find itself offside with the Trump administration as the review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) approaches.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCuba, in a way, is the classic case of where the expectation of a world order that the prime minister outlined to such effect and created such global resonance when he did that speech in Davos \u2026 That aspiration hits the real rocky shoals of the reality of everything around\u2014I believe\u2014the trade relationship with the United States,\u201d Entwistle said, remarking that if Canada wasn\u2019t in the middle of a CUSMA review period, the country may have taken a more \u201crobust\u201d approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn a way, watching what\u2019s going on in Cuba should give the Government of Canada considerable pause and even raise alarm bells because it demonstrates what this current United States government is capable of doing,\u201d he said. \u201cCuba is a bit of a canary in the coal mines.\u201d<\/p>\n The former ambassador said he has no expectation that Canada would take a strong stand against the U.S. if it targeted Cuba.\u00a0<\/p>\n Entwistle said that while the Cuban relationship is not fundamentally important for Canada\u2019s economic well-being, it is \u201cloaded with symbolic importance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut in the current state of play on the economic front, whether those types of arguments are even important right now [is] probably doubtful,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said that he would imagine that the Carney government doesn\u2019t place a high importance on its relations with Cuba.\u00a0<\/p>\n In February, Cuban Ambassador to Canada Rodrigo Malmierca D\u00edaz appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe that our cause is just and deserves the support of the international community and of countries like Canada, which have defence of international law among the pillars of their foreign policies,\u201d the envoy said on Feb. 24.<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s symbolic relationship with Cuba still looms<\/p>\n St. Francis Xavier University professor emeritus Yvon Grenier, an expert on Canadian foreign policy in Latin America, said that it remains to be seen what Trump wants in regard to Cuba.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s particularly interested in democracy in Cuba,\u201d Grenier said. \u201cI think he\u2019d be more interested in getting a few concessions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He said that Canada is in a similar position with the Trump administration, which is to \u201cwait and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cI don\u2019t think they need to get out there and say, \u2018We condemn in advance this or that, or we support this or that,\u2019\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n If the U.S. were to conduct a military operation in Cuba, Canada would likely take a similar line as it did after the Venezuela raid, Grenier added.<\/p>\n \u201cThey would probably be very cautious not to spend a lot of political capital blasting Trump over something that is not a top priority for national interests in Canada,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Grenier noted that the Cuban relationship holds some symbolic value for Canada by offering an example of an independent foreign policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAny Canadian government would try to preserve that symbolic dimension,\u201d he said, but remarked that will be less of a priority than not ending up offside with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n nmoss@hilltimes.com<\/p>\n The Hill Times<\/p>\n \u00a0
\n <\/p>\n Neil Moss is a reporter with The Hill Times who covers federal politics, foreign policy, international trade, Canada-U.S. relations, and defence, as well as leading the newspaper’s annual Top 50 list of foreign policy influencers. See all stories BY NEIL MOSS<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With United States President Donald Trump increasing pressure on Cuba, his country\u2019s State Department is looking to Canada…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,2104],"class_list":["post-71753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-cuba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/B63A1939-1024x729.jpg\")
Cuban Ambassador to Canada Rodrigo Malmierca D\u00edaz told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in November that his nation \u2018deserves\u2019 the support of the international community and countries like Canada. The Hill Times photograph by Sam Garcia<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1594403517130.jpg\")
The topic of Canada\u2019s approach to Cuba was on the agenda during a meeting between Foreign Affairs deputy minister Arun Thangaraj, pictured, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn<\/p>\n
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