Updated 03:02 AM EDT, Fri, Mar 29, 2024

Marco Rubio has explained his hardline views on the United States’ relationship with Cuba.

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Marco Rubio has explained his hardline views on the United States' relationship with Cuba.

The Republican presidential candidate vows to reinstate a half-century-old diplomatic rule that was unsuccessful in ousting the communist government on the island where his parents came from, NBC Miami reported. Rubio, 44, doesn't think that his new ideas contradict his plan to bring back an old, disciplinary relation with Cuba.

"People think it's because we're being stubborn or holding on to old policies," the Florida senator in an interview with the Associated Press, as quoted by NBC Miami. "I'm prepared to change strategies toward Cuba, but it has to be one that yields results."

Rubio vowed that if he becomes president, he would call back President Barack Obama's peaceful dealings with Cuba. He also plans to "downgrade the newly opened American Embassy in Havana and put back in place tougher limits on U.S. dealings with the island," the news outlet noted.

However, the Republican hopeful said that he is open to permit U.S. companies to invest in telecommunications in Cuba in return for free and unregulated Internet access on the island, NBC Miami further reported. Rubio hopes to restore diplomatic relations with Havana, but only if the capital's government allows opposition political parties and grants them freedom to organize.

Rubio is also willing to adjust the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, which gives permanent residency to Cubans fleeing to the U.S. after one year, while majority of those apprehended in the waters between the two countries will be sent back to where they came from, NBC Miami wrote. Rubio is mum about the replacement of the policy, but thinks the strategy as "hard to justify" when Cuban-Americans now have more freedom in traveling to and fro the island.

"When you have people who are coming and a year and a day later are traveling back to Cuba 15 times a year, 12 times, 10 times, eight times, that doesn't look like someone who is fleeing oppression," Rubio continued in his interview with the AP, as reported by NBC Miami.

Rubio acknowledges that his hard views on Cuba are going against the rise of public interest in the nation. Despite the travel restrictions, Cuba sees plenty of American visitors -- including celebrities -- and an abundance of U.S. media attention.

"It's all very interesting," Rubio added, as quoted by the news outlet. "My problem is when people come back and say, 'I visited Cuba and it's a wonderful place, the people are happy, the government is great.' That's what I mind."

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