Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, on his tour of Asia this week, stopped in Laos, Vietnam, and Japan. In the latter country he appealed to Tokyo for support in Cuba’s relations with the United States. Rodriguez told his Japanese counterpart, Kastuya Okada, that many things had changed with Obama’s rise to the U.S. presidency, and he asked Japan to intercede in Washington on Cuba’s behalf in order to move toward détente.
Recall that several weeks ago, President Obama sent a message to the Cuban regime through Spain.
It appears that both nations are using a diplomatic tactic that smacks of an elementary school playground (“Oh is that what Cuba said? Well, you can tell Cuba that I said…”). Still, with years of silence or mutual antagonism on many diplomatic fronts, even this is better than nothing.