President Obama believes Cuba has made “progress” since he moved to open relations with the communist nation in late 2014, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday.

“After five decades of not seeing any results, the president felt it was time to see something different,” Earnest said of Obama’s Cuba policy, which has drawn sharp condemnation from many Republicans, including President-elect Trump, who say the shift was made without securing any concessions from the Raul Castro regime.