BASSETERRE, Saint Kitts and Nevis (AFP) — Speaking at the opening of the Caricom summit here on Tuesday, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness warned that a further deterioration in Cuba would impact stability across the Caribbean and trigger migration — United States President Donald Trump’s top political concern.

“Humanitarian suffering serves no one,” Holness said. “A prolonged crisis in Cuba will not remain confined to Cuba.”

Holness called for “constructive dialogue between Cuba and the United States aimed at de-escalation, reform and stability”.

On Wednesday Canada, which has long broken with its southern neighbour by maintaining warm relations with Havana, announced Can$8 million ($5.8 million) in aid for Cuba, which has experienced rolling blackouts and acute fuel shortages.

The Caribbean summit’s host, Saint Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew, studied in Cuba to be a doctor and said friends have told him of food scarcity and garbage strewn in the streets.

“A destabilised Cuba will destabilise all of us,” Drew said.

The United States has maintained an embargo on Cuba almost continuously since Fidel Castro’s 1959 communist revolution.

Since becoming the top US diplomat, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has publicly toned down calls for regime change and Trump has held off on further measures pushed by Cuban-American hardline critics of Havana, such as prohibiting the transfer of remittances.