Chile ? U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that the United States is not planning to lift its trade embargo on Cuba.

Biden, who was in the Chilean resort city of Vina del Mar for a summit of center-left leaders from Latin America and Europe, replied “no” when asked by reporters if Washington plans to scrap the decades-old embargo.

He and President Barack Obama “think that Cuban people should determine their own fate and they should be able to live in freedom,” Biden said after taking part in the Progressive Governance Summit.

The vice president said a “transition” is needed in the Washington policy toward the communist-ruled island, but that he was in Chile “to talk about the economy, not Cuba.”