ST. GEORGE’S – President Barack Obama’s decision to lift U.S. curbs on family travel and remittances to Cuba is “a step in the right direction,’’ says Grenada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Hon. Peter David. The Minister, who is also General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), made the comments shortly before leaving for Trinidad to attend the Summit of the Americas. The Grenada delegation to this weekend’s meeting, which is being attended by President Obama, is headed by Hon. Tillman Thomas, Prime Minister and Leader of the NDC. The Obama-led administration, which took office in January, is allowing for longer and more frequent visits to Cuba by Americans, and Cuban-Americans can now send a higher amount of money to family members living on the Spanish-speaking Caribbean nation. In addition, American companies now have the right to engage in telecommunication licensing agreements in Cuba. “It’s a step in the right direction in terms of the normalisation of relations between Cuba and the United States,’’ said Mr. David, who is also Grenada’s Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation, and MP for the Town of St. George. The NDC administration, like previous Grenada governments since the 1990s, as well as CARICOM as a regional body, all have publicly supported a complete lifting of the 47-year-old U.S. trade and economic embargo on Cuba. A similar appeal was also made recently by leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus in the United States. President Obama has indicated that a thorough reversal of U.S. policy toward Cuba would only occur when there was “some signal that there are going to be changes in how Cuba operates.’’ Cuba was not invited to the Trinidad summit, with Mr. Obama saying it was reserved for “democratic’’ countries. However, the desire of Caribbean and Latin American nations to see a change in U.S. attitude to Cuba, and the total removal of the embargo, is still expected to be featured prominently at the summit that opened on Friday, April 17. Mr. David described the U.S. embargo on Cuba as a policy of the “cold war that has long come to an end.’’ He said it’s CARICOM’s position that “Cuba needed to be treated with more respect and that the embargo was something that was affecting the Cuban people.’’ “We are very pleased to see that President Obama is going in the right direction,’’ the minister added. Apart from politicians, policy watchers in the Americas are also suggesting that it’s time for rapprochement between the U.S. and Cuba. Cuba-born Carlos Pascual, Director of Foreign Policy at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said the Cuban embargo has been a failure and he praised the policy shift of President Obama. However, he said the new policy announced by the President was not enough. “In and of itself, it’s not going to produce a radical change in Cuba,’’ Mr. Pascual said. “But it’s a recognition that a change is necessary.’’ Source: ndcgrenada.org