The foreign minister of Cuba has directed blame at the country's strengthened relationships with China and Russia squarely at the United States and its continued sanctioning of the communist country.

Speaking exclusively to Newsweek on Thursday, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla said the increased cooperation between Cuba, Russia and China is a direct result of the U.S. maintaining the restrictions put in place by former President Donald Trump.

During his time in office, former President Barack Obama eased many of the restrictions on Cuba, but a significant number of these were reversed by Trump and then continued by President Joe Biden. While some travel restrictions were loosened, the Biden Administration chose not to modify the embargo nor remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

In June and July of this year, Russian war ships arrived in Cuba's waters, which both countries dismissed as a routine exercise. However, since the onset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022 and the billions of military aid the U.S. has supplied to bolster Ukraine's defense, tensions between the two nations have risen.

The foreign minister stated that Cuba's quest is to "find a much more efficient economic model and adapt it to our current reality." Rodríguez Parrilla noted that his country has "many friends all over the world," adding, "we have also developed a broad pattern of international relations based on the lack of relations that we have with the U.S."

Rodríguez Parrilla further stressed the importance of his country nurturing Cuba's relationship with China saying, "it is, indeed, serious that we have a respectful relationship, a mutually beneficial relationship with China and that we are in every right to do so."

"We would like to have the same kind of relationship with the U.S.," he said. "Chinese companies have recently entered Cuba. Whatever prevents American companies from doing the same is the blockade."

The communist island nation is also home to many rare earth metals used in high tech, such as cobalt and nickel, key ingredients in the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries in the exploding electric vehicle market.

"So, the U.S. government wants to compete with China at the global scale. But they follow a policy leaving Cuba free from this competition on high-tech procedures and technology," Rodríguez Parrilla said. "Why don't they compete in Cuba as well?"

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