A top Cuban official says that Donald Trump’s announcement last week that he would reinstate travel and business restrictions on the country was a “grotesque spectacle” straight from the Cold War.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez made the comment during a speech in Vienna on a visit aimed at strengthening relations between Cuba and Austria.

As for the real effects of policy, Mr Rodriguez said that he will need to wait for Mr Trump’s measures to be implemented before he can completely assess their impacts. Mr Trump instructed the federal government to begin working on plans for restricting individual travel to Cuba, and on American investment in the country. The President signalled that Cuban human rights violations were a main motivation to try and keep cash from flowing to the Cuban government.

The Cuban Foreign Minister saw a silver lining in Mr Trump’s announcement. He said that the US President’s rollback would strengthen Cuban patriotism. In addition, Mr Rodriguez said that Cuba wouldn't send American fugitives back to the US, which Mr Trump said was a necessary condition to begin renegotiating the relationship between the two countries.

The President’s decision last week was not without controversy in the United States. While most Republicans cheered the change in policy — including Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who engaged in a nasty fight with Mr Trump for the Republican nomination last year — many said that the changes were a brash political play to try and attract conservative Cuban voters in Florida.

“This is not about the Cuban military, it is about politics, as evidenced by the President’s decision to make this announcement in Miami”, Sarah Stephens, an expert on US-Cuba policy, said, “and the administration’s unwillingness to make a serious strategic argument for the policy”.

Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Show all 20 1 /20 Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Pictures of everyday life in Cuba A man rides his modified bicycle past a vintage American car in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba A taxi sits parked by Ancon Beach waiting for returning bathers in Trinidad Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Afrocuban carnival group "Los componedores de batea" performing in the streets of La Habana Vieja Rex Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Pastel colours for an ice-cream place and a vintage American car in Cienfuegos after sunset Rex Pictures of everyday life in Cuba A man on the phone in a bookshop in Old Havana (Habana Vieja) selling books and displaying propaganda poster of the Cuban Revolution Rex Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Street Musicians in Santiago De Cuba Rex Pictures of everyday life in Cuba A man works to repair his classic American car after it broke down along the Prado, a wide avenue that runs from Parque Central to the Malecon seafront highway, in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Members of the 'Ladies in White,' a group founded by the partners and relatives of jailed dissidents that regularly protests against the Cuban government, demonstrate on the streets of Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Street vegetables vendor in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba The sun setting through the palm trees and creates long shadows on the pool deck at this resort in Cuba Varadero Rex Pictures of everyday life in Cuba General view of a street in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba A girls plays on a street in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Girls walk past graffiti art along the Paseo de Marti, the wide boulevard that runs through the heart of the historic Old Havana neighborhood in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba A woman smokes her Havana cigar Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba A man harvests tobacco leaves for drying at a tobacco drying house on a co-op plantation in Pinar del Rio Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Men play chess on a street in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Locals take part in a gay parade in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Scene of the Memories Paraiso Azul resort in Santa Maria Key Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Beach on the Bay of Pigs, Zapata Peninsula Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Divers swimming above coral reef in Caribbean Sea Rex