Obama meets Castro as US-Cuba hold historic meeting in decades
Asia-Pacific, News, US April 12, 2015 1 Comment on Obama meets Castro as US-Cuba hold historic meeting in decadesPresidents from the US and Cuba have historically sat down at a negotiating table for the first time in more than 50 years. Barack Obama met with his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro to discuss relations between the two countries.
The meeting in a small conference room on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas came as the two countries work to end the Cold War enmity that had led to a total freeze of diplomatic ties. And while both leaders proclaimed progress had been made, a key stumbling block — Cuba’s place on the U.S. list of countries that sponsor terror — remained unresolved.
“This is obviously an historic meeting,” Obama said at the beginning of his session with Castro, claiming that decades of strain had done little to benefit either Cubans or citizens of the United States.
“We are now in a position to move on a path toward the future,” Obama told Castro at the meeting. “Over time it is possible for us to turn the page and develop a new relationship between our two countries.“
“We are willing to discuss everything but we need to be patient, very patient,” Castro replied.
The US President has thanked Castro for the “spirit of openness” during the remarkable meeting that followed the historic handshake between the two leaders, AFP reported on Saturday.
“The Cold War is over … Cuba is not a threat to the United States,” Obama told reporters, stressing the need to make the message clear.
He also admitted that “there are still going to be deep and significant differences” between the two governments.
Castro responded by saying he is open to dialogue, but warned that Cuba should not look be rushed into anything.
“So we are willing to discuss everything, but we need to be patient, very patient. Some things we will agree on; others we will disagree,” the 83 year-old leader said.
Over the past fifty years, relations between the United States and Cuba have been particularly strained. A socialist revolution in the 1950s led to a US embargo and a failed CIA-sponsored military invasion at the Bay of Pigs. The two countries only announced last year their intentions to seek better ties.
Obama announced in December that he was seeking to renew diplomatic relations with Cuba after half a century of strife, including eventually opening embassies in Washington and Havana.
His meeting with Castro on Saturday isn’t being billed as a formal bilateral session, but Obama’s aides are still characterizing the event as the highest-level engagement with the Cuban government since then-Vice President Richard Nixon met with Fidel Castro in 1959.
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