The Cuban government on Friday morning officially announced that it had entered into negotiations with the United States in a bid to ultimately normalize relations.

"The Cuban Government recently held conversations with representatives of the US Government to seek, through dialogue, a solution to the existing bilateral differences" Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said in a national broadcast, as translated by El Pais.

The announcement follows President Donald Trump discussing a "friendly takeover" of the island nation earlier this month. He has repeatedly suggested that the nation's communist regime could be on its deathbed.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is of Cuban origin and part of the community of expats and their descendants in that state.

Cuba has had a communist government since 1959, when the communist forces of Fidel Castro overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.