US, Cuba to restore diplomatic ties after 54 years

HAVANA/WASHINGTON: The United States and Cuba are set to announce the restoration of diplomatic relations on Wednesday, the result of a two-year courtship between former Cold War rivals who severed ties in 1961. The senior US diplomat in Havana on Wednesday delivered a letter from President Barack Obama addressed to Cuban President Raul Castro about the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The text of the letter was not immediately disclosed.
Jeffrey DeLaurentis, chief of the US interests section, handed the letter to Cuba’s interim foreign minister, Marcelino Medina, at the Cuban foreign ministry. The two shook hands in front of a Cuban and a US flag.
Obama spoke from the White House’s ceremonial Rose Garden. It was unknown whether Castro responded with a statement from Havana.
The Cuba deal marks a major achievement for Obama, who has been criticized for foreign policy stumbles, especially in the Middle East. It follows his recent victory in a congressional fight for fast-track authority that could undergird a landmark Asia trade deal and comes as Washington appears to be on the cusp of a nuclear agreement with Iran.
Following 18 months of secret negotiations brokered by Pope Francis and Canada, the two leaders announced separately but simultaneously in December that they planned to reopen embassies in each other’s capitals and normalize relations.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected at a flag-raising ceremony in Havana later this month, when the US interests section will become a full embassy. Cuba’s mission in Washington will undergo a similar upgrade. The deal in December also included a prisoner swap and sought to relegate to history 56 years of recriminations that have predominated ever since Fidel Castro’s rebels overthrew the US-backed government of Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959.
Two years later, President Dwight Eisenhower closed the US Embassy in Havana on January 3, 1961, less than three weeks before President-elect John F. Kennedy was due to take office.
By April of that year, Kennedy would authorise the US-organized invasion of Cuba by a force of Cuban exiles. The attack at the Bay of Pigs failed and reinforced Castro’s standing at home and abroad. .
In October 1962, Washington and Moscow nearly came to nuclear war over Soviet missiles stationed in Cuba.
Ever defiant toward his neighbour just 90 miles to the north, Fidel Castro, 88, remained in power until 2008, when he handed off to his younger brother Raul Castro, 84.
ith diplomatic relations restored, the United States and Cuba will turn to the more difficult task of normalising overall relations.
Major obstacles include the comprehensive US economic embargo of Cuba and the US naval base at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay, which the United States has leased since 1903. Cuba wants the 45 square miles returned as full sovereign territory.
Obama, a Democrat, has asked the Republican-controlled Congress to lift the 53-year-old embargo, but the conservative leadership in Congress has resisted. — Reuters