Washington and Havana may have each gotten a new embassy, but that doesn’t mean the pair are doing business quite yet.
On Monday, leaders from the two countries—who reestablished diplomatic relations earlier this year—addressed America's continuing trade embargo against Cuba.
“After 56 years in which the Cuban people put up a heroic and selfless resistance, diplomatic relations have been reestablished between Cuba and the United States of America,” said Cuban President Raul Castro in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly.
Castro outlined the steps he saw as necessary to achieve a “normalization of relations” between the United States and Cuba. First and foremost, the Cuban leader asked for “the end of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade against Cuba.”
As long as the embargo stands, Castro said, Cuba would continue to introduce a U.N. draft resolution titled “Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial, and Financial Embargo Imposed by the United States of America Against Cuba.”
This would not be the first time the United Nations has voted on a resolution with that name: The U.N. General Assembly voted on a resolution by the same title in 2014, marking the 23rd time the body voted to denounce the embargo; 188 countries voted for that resolution, while just the United States and Israel opposed it.