Cuba's foreign policy has been fluid throughout history depending on world events and other variables, including relations with the United States. Without massive Soviet subsidies and its primary trading partner, Cuba became increasingly isolated in the late 1980s and early 1990s after the fall of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, but Cuba opened up more with the rest of the world again starting in the late 1990s when they have since entered bilateral co-operation with several South American countries, most notably Venezuela and Bolivia beginning in the late 1990s, especially after the Venezuela election of Hugo Chávez in 1999, who became a staunch ally of Castro's Cuba. The United States used to stick to a policy of isolating Cuba until December 2014, when Barack Obama announced a new policy of diplomatic and economic engagement. The European Union accuses Cuba of "continuing flagrant violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms". Cuba has developed a growing relationship with the People's Republic of China and Russia. Cuba provided civilian assistance workers – principally medical – to more than 20 countries. More than one million exiles have escaped to foreign countries. Cuba's present foreign minister is Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.
The Organization of American States is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas.
The foreign relations of Venezuela had since the early twentieth century been particularly strong with the United States. However, since the election of Hugo Chávez as President of Venezuela in 1998, Venezuela's foreign policy differed substantially from that of previous Venezuelan governments. This change in foreign policy direction continues under the current president Nicolás Maduro.
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was a proposed agreement to eliminate or reduce the trade barriers among all countries in the Americas, excluding Cuba. Negotiations to establish the FTAA ended in failure, however, with all parties unable to reach an agreement by the 2005 deadline they had set for themselves.
The 3rd Summit of the Americas was a summit held in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, on April 20–22, 2001.
The Association of Caribbean States is an advisory association of nations centered on the Caribbean Basin. It was formed with the aim of promoting consultation, cooperation, and concerted action among all the countries of the Caribbean coastal area. The primary purpose of the ACS is to promote greater trade between the nations, enhance transportation, develop sustainable tourism, and facilitate greater and more effective responses to local natural disasters.
The 4th Summit of the Americas was held at Mar del Plata, about 400 km (250 mi) southeast of Buenos Aires in Argentina, on November 4–5, 2005.
The 2nd Summit of the Americas was held in Santiago, Chile, on April 18–19, 1998.
The First Summit of the Americas was convened in Miami, Florida, United States, on December 9–11, 1994.
Odeen Ishmael was a career Guyanese diplomat.
The Special Summit of the Americas was held on January 12 and 13, 2004 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.
The Fifth Summit of the Americas (VSOA) was held at Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago, on April 17–19, 2009.
The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is a regional bloc of Latin American and Caribbean states proposed on February 23, 2010, at the Rio Group–Caribbean Community Unity Summit, and created on December 3, 2011, in Caracas, Venezuela, with the signing of the Declaration of Caracas. It consists of 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and has five official languages.
The sixth Summit of the Americas was held at Cartagena, Colombia, on April 14–15, 2012. The central theme of the summit was "Connecting the Americas: Partners for Prosperity." The main issues at the summit's agenda was the exclusion of Cuba, the legalisation of drugs to fight the War on Drugs and Argentina's sovereignty claims over the Falkland Islands. Additionally, criticism of an expansionist monetary policy was also leveled on the developed economies. A final statement was not forthcoming over the issue of Cuba's inclusion in the next summit which was supported by all states except the United States and Canada. Panama was chosen to host the 7th Summit of the Americas.
All 35 independent nations of the Americas are member states of the Organization of American States (OAS).
The seventh Summit of the Americas was held at Panama City, Panama, on April 10 – 11, 2015.
Luis Leonardo Almagro Lemes is a Uruguayan lawyer, diplomat, and politician who currently serves as the 10th Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) since 2015. A former member of the Broad Front, Almagro served as Minister of Foreign Relations of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015 under president José Mujica.
The Secretariat for Multidimensional Security of the Organization of American States is a part of the General Secretariat, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States. The Secretariat for Multidimensional Security has a mandate to promote cooperation between Organization's Member States, Inter-American and international organizations, as well as with entities such as the United Nations and its subsidiaries, in order to analyze, prevent, confront and respond to security threats.
Sir Ronald Michael Sanders is an Antiguan Barbudan diplomat, academic, former broadcast-journalist, and the current Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States and to the Organization of American States (OAS) since 2015. He holds the unique distinction of being the first person, since the OAS enlarged its membership in 1962, to serve as Chairman of the Permanent Council of the OAS for an unprecedented three terms. He completed his highly successful third term on December 31, 2023, having played a widely recognized role in guiding the work of the Permanent Council in the peaceful transition of government in Guatemala on 14 January 2024.
The 9th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement on 4–7 September 1989 in Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia was the conference of Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement. Belgrade was the first city to host the Summit for the second time after it hosted the 1st Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961. Yugoslavia was unanimously selected as the host of the Summit at the 1988 Non-Aligned Foreign Ministers Conference in Nicosia, Cyprus. While the Federal Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia led by Budimir Lončar was excited, the Presidency of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav collective head of state, was skeptical about the prospects of hosting the event but ultimately supported it by Josip Vrhovec in fear that rejection may show the level of the crisis in the country. The comparatively weak federal government organizers of the event ultimately hoped that the conference may convince leaders of the strong Yugoslav federal republics to resolve the early Yugoslav crisis in a constructive and peaceful way, yet it nevertheless escalated in 1991 Yugoslav Wars. The event is therefore sometimes described as the swan song of the prominent Yugoslav Cold War diplomacy. Summit took place at the Sava Centar in New Belgrade. Janez Drnovšek held the opening remarks in Slovenian language.
