Matt Spetalnick and Dave Sherwood

HAVANA/WASHINGTON – The Biden administration has placed Cuba again on a “not cooperating completely” list by the United States in order to further inflame tensions with its long-standing rival.

In Friday’s final assessment, Secretary of State Antony Blinken named Cuba as one of five countries that, according to the United States, fall below its expectations.

Law requires that the State Department provides this information annually to Congress.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez anticipated the move on Thursday, calling a draft notice from May 11 signed by Blinken “one more lie” coming from Washington.

“The United States again maintains the slander of saying that Cuba doesn’t cooperate sufficiently in the fight against terrorism,” Rodriguez said on Twitter (NYSE:) on Thursday, calling it a “pretext to continue an unceasing economic war universally repudiated.”

The U.S. assessment is almost identical to the one issued by the Biden administration a year ago, which stuck with the Trump administration’s determination.

According to a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, Friday’s decision came after a thorough review of counterterrorism goals with this country as well as a realistic evaluation of its capabilities.

The decision follows the Biden administration’s move on Monday to partially rollback some Trump-era restrictions on remittances and travel to the Communist-ruled island, measures that Havana has blasted as sparse on details, politically-driven and insufficient.

Tensions on both sides have risen over signals that Cuba – along with Nicaragua and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government – could be excluded from the U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas next month.

The possibility of President Joe Biden being embarrassed by the possible boycott of a number of leading leaders including Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (Mexican President) has increased.

Donald Trump, the former president of the United States of America, had previously designated Cuba as a state sponsor for terrorism. This is a separate measure from his assessment of insufficient cooperation.

According to the Biden administration, state sponsor designations are still being reviewed.