Cuba's foreign policy has been highly dynamic depending on world events throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Cuban foreign policy is impacted by the various spheres of influence and economic development of neighboring countries. During the 1980s, its geopolitical alignment with the Soviet Union isolated Cuba on the international stage. The fall of the Soviet Union, end of the Cold War, and emergence of Russia as a key trading partner led to limited regional relations. Cuba began to establish bilateral relations with South American countries during the late-1990s, mainly with Venezuela and Bolivia. Cuba has a cold relationship with the United States, with a variety of bilateral issues due to historic conflict and divergent political ideologies. It has a similarly strained relationship with the European Union (EU) due to Cuba's human rights policies. Since the late-2010s, Cuba has developed closer ties to Venezuela, Russia, and China.
Cuba provided civilian assistance workers – principally medical – to more than 20 countries as medical diplomacy. More than one million exiles have escaped to foreign countries. Cuba is slated to be a part of the United Nations Human Rights Council from 2024 to 2026 despite Human rights in Cuba. It is a founding member of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, a member of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Latin American Integration Association and the United Nations. Cuba is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement and hosted its September 2006 summit. In addition as a member of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), Cuba was re-appointed as the chair of the special committee on transportation issues for the Caribbean region. Since November 2004, several leaders of South America have attempted to make Cuba either a full or associate member of the South American trade bloc known as Mercosur. Cuba's present foreign minister is Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.
In 1917, Cuba entered World War I on the side of the allies.
Following the establishment of diplomatic ties to the Soviet Union, and after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuba became increasingly dependent on Soviet markets and military and economic aid. Castro was able to build a formidable military force with the help of Soviet equipment and military advisors. The KGB kept in close touch with Havana, and Castro tightened Communist Party control over all levels of government, the media, and the educational system, while developing a Soviet-style internal police force.
Castro's alliance with the Soviet Union caused something of a split between him and Guevara. In 1966, Guevara left for Bolivia in an ill-fated attempt to stir up revolution against the country's government.
On August 23, 1968, Castro made a public gesture to the USSR that caused the Soviet leadership to reaffirm their support for him. Two days after Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia to repress the Prague Spring, Castro took to the airwaves and publicly denounced the Czech rebellion. Castro warned the Cuban people about the Czechoslovak 'counterrevolutionaries', who "were moving Czechoslovakia towards capitalism and into the arms of imperialists". He called the leaders of the rebellion "the agents of West Germany and fascist reactionary rabble."
Relations in Latin America during the Cold War
"Cuba has a unique symbolic allure. It is the small country that confronted the U.S. empire and has survived despite the attempts by all U.S. presidents since to subdue its communist government. It is the island with iconic leaders like Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, and the Latin American country that in the language of revolutionaries everywhere embodies the struggle of socialist humanism against the materialism of capitalist societies. Cuba is also the small nation that in the past sent its troops to die in faraway lands in Latin America and even Africa fighting for the poor."
During the Cold War, Cuba's influence in the Americas was inhibited by the Monroe Doctrine and the dominance of the United States. Despite this Fidel Castro became an influential figurehead for leftist groups in the region, extending support to Marxist Revolutionary movements throughout Latin America, most notably aiding the Sandinistas in overthrowing Somoza in Nicaragua in 1979. In 1971, Fidel Castro took a month-long visit to Chile. The visit, in which Castro participated actively in the internal politics of the country, holding massive rallies and giving public advice to Salvador Allende, was seen by those on the political right as proof to support their view that "The Chilean Way to Socialism" was an effort to put Chile on the same path as Cuba.
Intervention in Cold War conflicts
During the Cold War, Africa was a major target of Cuba's influence. Fidel Castro stated that Africa was chosen in part to represent Cuban solidarity with its own large population of African descent. Exporting Cuba's revolutionary tactics abroad increased its worldwide influence and reputation. Wolf Grabendorff states that "Most African states view Cuban intervention in Africa as help in achieving independence through self-help rather than as a step toward the type of dependence which would result from a similar commitment by the super-powers." Cuban Soldiers were sent to fight in the Simba rebellion in the DRC during the 1960s. Furthermore, by providing military aid Cuba won trading partners for the Soviet bloc and potential converts to Marxism.
Starting in the 1970s, Cuba's intervened in 17 African nations including three insurgencies. Cuba expanded military programs to Africa and the Middle East, sending military missions to Sierra Leone in 1972, South Yemen in 1973, Equatorial Guinea in 1973, and Somalia in 1974. It sent combat troops to Syria in 1973 to fight against Israel. Cuba was following the general Soviet policy of détente with the West, and secret discussions were opened with the United States about peaceful coexistence. They ended abruptly when Cuba sent combat troops to fight in Angola in 1975.
On November 4, 1975, Castro ordered the deployment of Cuban troops to Angola to aid the Marxist MPLA against UNITA, which were supported by the People's Republic of China, United States, Israel, and South Africa (see: Cuba in Angola). After two months on their own, Moscow aided the Cuban mission with the USSR engaging in a massive airlift of Cuban forces into Angola. Both Cuban and South African forces withdrew in the late 1980s and Namibia was granted independence. The Angolan civil war would last until 2002. Nelson Mandela is said to have remarked "Cuban internationalists have done so much for African independence, freedom, and justice." Cuban troops were also sent to Marxist Ethiopia to assist Mengistu Haile Mariam's government in the Ogaden War with Somalia in 1977. Cuba sent troops along with the Soviet Union to aid the FRELIMO government against the Rhodesian and South African-backed RENAMO.
Castro never disclosed the number of casualties in Soviet African wars, but one estimate is that 14,000 Cubans were killed in Cuban military actions abroad.
In addition, Castro extended support to Marxist Revolutionary movements throughout Latin America. The first of these interventions came in 1959 with the Cuban intervention in Panama, where the Panamanian diplomat Roberto Arias appealed to Castro for support for an uprising against Panama's government. The intervention ended in failure however. A similar intervention was attempted against the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo to trigger a revolution in the Dominican Republic against his dictatorship but also ended in failure. The Cuban government would also provide support to anti-junta revolutionaries in Argentina, such as the People's Revolutionary Army (Argentina) and the Montoneros. While from 1961 onward, they also aided the Sandinistas in overthrowing the Somoza government in Nicaragua in 1979 supported the communist government in Grenada against the American invasion of 1983.
Leadership of non-aligned movement