U.S. sanctions against Cuba

The most lasting political consequences of Europe's most terrible conflict were finally annulled in recent years with the end of the Cold War.

Are we now about to witness the annulment of one of the most tortured anomalies of United States foreign policy: the counterproductive campaign to promote democracy in Fidel Castro's island by impoverishing the Cuban people?

U.S. officials revealed that President Bill Clinton is likely to reinstate direct flights to Cuba and allow U.S.-based exiles to send money home to family and friends.

The moves, prompted in part by the January visit to Cuba of Pope John Paul II, were recommended by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. It also has been disclosed that Washington is considering allowing American satellite manufacturers to buy launching services from China as an incentive for Beijing to tighten controls on missile-related exports.

These two initiatives highlight a new trend in which hard- headed economic decisions are increasingly replacing ideology in the conduct of interstate relations. Economics, it seems, now determines politics.

U.S.-imposed punitive measures have, over the years, made life harder for many Cubans, but Havana has already survived far worse: the loss of trade and aid from the now-vanished Soviet empire. These latest moves are a sign that realists in the U.S. are aware that continued sanctions would deepen despair on the island but achieve nothing constructive.

-- The Hong Kong Standard