After Raúl Castro called publicly for the return of Guantánamo Bay to Cuba, US officials insisted the base’s status was not being negotiated in diplomatic talks

The US official leading negotiations with Cuba said on Wednesday that the issue of Guantánamo Bay is not a part of diplomatic conversations with the country, despite Cuban president Raúl Castro’s demand last week that the US return the base.

Roberta Jacobson, the assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, testified at a House of Representatives hearing about Cuba on Wednesday.

“The issue of Guantánamo is not on the table in these conversations,” Jacobson said.

She said the main US objective in current negotiations is to establish diplomatic relations as part of a gradual rapprochement between the two countries.

“I want to be clear that what we are talking about right now is the reestablishment of diplomatic relations, which is only one first step in normalization,” said Jacobson. “Obviously the Cuban government has raised Guantánamo, we are not interested in discussing that. We are not discussing that issue or return of Guantánamo.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson testifies about Cuba policy in Washington. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Castro and Obama on 17 December made a surprise announcement that the two countries would work to ease diplomatic relations. The first objective is to re-establish mutual embassies and appoint ambassadors. Both the US and Cuba currently maintain diplomatic offices in the Swiss embassies of their respective countries.

Speaking last week at a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Castro said that the two countries are working to ease relations but that the US would need to lift its trade embargo on Cuba, compensate the country for damages and return Guantánamo.

He told the summit that “if these problems aren’t resolved, this diplomatic rapprochement wouldn’t make any sense.”

“The re-establishment of diplomatic relations is the start of a process of normalizing bilateral relations, but this will not be possible while the blockade still exists, while they don’t give back the territory illegally occupied by the Guantánamo naval base,” Castro said.

As part of the December announcement, the US has instituted economic measures to loosen the trade embargo like allowing US banks to permit the use of their services in the country, easing travel restrictions and raising the amount of money, or remittances, that can be sent to Cubans from family members in the US.

State Department officials said in January that the first set of diplomatic talks between Cuba and the US following the December announcement were productive “despite clear differences that remain between our countries.”

This is the second of three hearings on Cuba in Congress this week. The first, on Tuesday, was held during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, where Republican senator Marco Rubio of Florida attacked the administration’s plans to ease relations. Rubio, who is considering a run for the presidency, said he did not support the policies “for the simple reason that I don’t think they will be effective”.

