The Cuban government is rushing to diversify and enhance ties in Asia, as U.S. President Donald Trump cranks up pressure on the Caribbean island nation following his raid on Venezuela.

While China is a traditional ally and leading source of direct investment, Havana is courting Japan and others, hoping to bring in desperately needed foreign capital by streamlining regulations and procedures.

“We are seeking sustainable business opportunities,” Gisela Beatriz Garcia Rivera, Cuba’s ambassador to Japan, told a few dozen local businesspeople and government officials at the country’s embassy in Tokyo on Thursday. She hosted a seminar to explain the government’s latest investment policies, which were introduced in November at the 41st annual Havana International Fair.

Cuba, under a U.S. embargo for decades, is a single-party communist state with a reputation for tight government control and repression. The watchdog Freedom House lists it as “not free,” with a score of just 10 out of a possible 100, putting it between Iran and China.

But desperate times have prompted some groundbreaking measures, from the Cuban government’s perspective.

Feasibility studies are no longer necessary, and submission of business plans can substitute for investment applications, while the evaluation period is to be cut by more than half to seven days, according to the steps listed at the seminar. Havana now allows foreign investors to hire local employees directly, without going through the government employment agency, and they are permitted to pay bonuses to their local employees in foreign currency — part of an attempt to introduce partial dollarization of the local economy.

Foreign investors are also allowed to directly import fuel using foreign currencies as well, the officials said.

Ten specific sectors were named as priorities, including food production, construction, manufacturing, mining, oil exploration, biotechnology, logistics and tourism. The government presented a total of 426 candidate projects as “new opportunities” for foreign investors, mainly in these sectors, estimating their total value at $31.152 billion.

Japan is an unusual location for a Cuban investment seminar, as there is currently no direct investment flowing from the Asian country. According to Roberto La O, economic and commercial counsellor at the embassy, Cuba now has 376 ongoing foreign investment projects from 40 countries. China tops the list, followed by Mexico, Italy, Vietnam, Spain, Portugal, Australia, Slovakia, Russia, Canada, Chile and South Korea.

“Hoping that one day, there will be an investment from Japan following an investment seminar like this one,” La O said.

While Japan is a close ally of the U.S., it is not part of the Washington-led economic sanctions and embargo against Cuba, and the bilateral diplomatic relationship has remained unbroken since 1929, three decades before the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro.

Nevertheless, engaging with Cuba carries a risk of secondary sanctions, especially now, after Trump issued an emergency executive order on Jan. 29 declaring the country a national security risk and threatening extra tariffs on others that supply it with oil.

Cuba was heavily dependent on oil from Venezuela under President Nicolas Maduro before he was captured in the U.S. military raid on Jan. 3. The abrupt power shift in the region has triggered warnings of a crisis in Cuba.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said on Thursday, “I can tell you that the secretary-general is extremely concerned about the humanitarian situation in Cuba, which will worsen, and if not collapse, if its oil needs go unmet.”

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel told media on Thursday that his government is preparing to introduce new measures to cope with the latest economic and social crisis. He called for talks with Trump, with certain conditions.

“Cuba is willing to engage in dialogue, but with the sole demand that the U.S. government not attempt to interfere in Cuba’s internal affairs, nor undermine our sovereignty,” Diaz-Canel said.

At the Tokyo investment seminar, the embassy’s La O avoided directly answering a question about the risk that investors in Cuba could run afoul of the U.S.

China, for its part, has made it clear that it sides with Cuba.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday told Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez in Beijing that China is “firmly in support of safeguarding Cuba’s national sovereignty and security, and opposing any unjustifiable interference by external forces that deprives the rights of survival and development of the Cuban people,” according to the Chinese ministry’s website.

Wang also vowed to “continue providing support and assistance to the best of our ability.” Beijing has so far pledged $80 million in emergency financial aid and a total shipment of 60 metric tons of rice to the Cuban government.

Although China is backing Cuba and remains a top investor, data suggests fading interest in its long-standing Communist ally compared with the rest of Latin America.

China’s annual statistics on foreign direct investment published in September said the Chinese investment stock in Cuba as of the end of 2024 stood at just $30.59 million, a small fraction of the total figure for Latin America of $567.71 billion. The Cuba amount for 2023 was much larger, close to $285 million, while unexplained “adjustments” were made to historical figures, the document states.

The appetite for Chinese investment in Cuba clearly lags behind other countries in the region, such as Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Panama, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador, although the bulk goes to tax havens in the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands. 

Political rhetoric aside, the figures underscore Cuba’s need to attract a wider range of investors like Japan as it feels the squeeze from Trump.