Noel Brinkerhoff reports: “In another sign of improving, if not incremental change in relations between the United States and Cuba, the U.S. military formally acknowledged a joint disaster-preparedness exercise last week between American and Cuban soldiers. Troops stationed on the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay crossed over into Cuban territory to set up a mock triage area that would be used by military personnel from both countries, if an actual emergency occurred. Meanwhile, a Cuban military helicopter was allowed to fly over the Navy base to drop water on a simulated wildfire… Retired U.S. Marine Corps General Jack Sheehan told The Miami Herald that the public acknowledgement represented a “trial balloon” by the Obama administration to test American—especially Cuban-American—feelings for closer relations with Havana.”
Military exercises are not new: Cuban and U.S. military have performed joint exercises on the island since the 1990s. But this is the first time the United States has made a public acknowledgement and provided details about this form of U.S.-Cuban cooperation. The Bush administration forbade the disclosure of this information for over a decade.
This is a particularly interesting kind of “step” in the slow thaw we have witnessed recently.
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[...] The challenges we face as a nation are often transnational in nature, and must therefore be addressed by cooperation between nations. We’ve addressed several of these in the past year as opportunities (and pressing necessities) for US-Cuba cooperation: including on ocean and environmental issues, particularly in the context of the BP oil spill; on immigration and human trafficking issues; and on drug trafficking issues. [...]