Majority of US Senate Favors Improving Relations with Cuba

The majority of the US Senate is in favor of President Barack Obama’s efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, US Senator Jeff Flake told Sputnik.

“While there are some very committed individuals, some very prominent voices against it [normalizing US-Cuban relations], I believe the majority in the Senate favors what the President has done and favors even going further,” Flake said on Wednesday.

Flake applauded the Obama administration for taking steps to loosen travel bans and increase engagement between the United States and Cuba.

“We deserve to have an ambassador and full diplomatic relations to give us the protections that we have elsewhere in the world,” Flake said.

US-Cuba relations opens a new chapter

Efforts are underway to reopen a US embassy in Cuba through a series of bilateral meetings between US State Department and Cuban officials, according to the State Department.

The renewed engagement between the two countries follows President Obama’s December 2014 announcement to normalize relations with the Cuba.

The United States has enforced an embargo against Cuba for more than five decades, severing diplomatic ties and imposing strict limitations on travel and trade.

Senator Flake is the lead sponsor of legislation to fully lift the US travel ban to Cuba, and has the support of the majority of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.