US - Cuba announce agreement to restore relations

(Baonghean.vn) - The Obama administration will officially announce today (July 1) that it has reached an agreement with Cuba to reopen the embassy and restore diplomatic relations that deteriorated more than 50 years ago, US officials said on June 30.

According to a senior US administration official, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry will both make speeches on the issue. A similar announcement is likely to be made by the Cuban government.

The formal announcement of a deal would complete a pledge the two Cold War foes made more than six months ago, when Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced a historic diplomatic opportunity.

Kerry is likely to travel to Havana for a week starting July 20 to attend the flag-raising ceremony to reopen the US embassy. The exact date will be announced by the White House in the near future, a US official said.

Chairs are prepared before a press conference in Washington, following the fourth round of talks between the US and Cuba to restore diplomatic relations and reopen embassies on May 22. Photo: Reuters.

Both countries can now upgrade their interest sections in Havana and Washington to full embassies, with ambassadors appointed later. The State Department must notify Congress 15 days before opening embassies.

Restoring relations is the latest stage in a process of normalization that is expected to progress slowly due to lingering problems over issues such as Cuba's human rights record. A US embargo will remain in place, which only Congress can lift.

“Opening a US embassy in Cuba will do nothing for the Cuban people and is just another insignificant attempt by President Obama to add to his legacy,” Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican congresswoman from South Florida, said in a statement. But US officials say hard-line anti-Castro lawmakers in Congress have little power to block the restoration of relations or the reopening of the embassy.

The United States and Cuba began secret talks on restoring relations in mid-2013, leading to the historic announcement on December 17, 2014, when Obama and Castro said separately and simultaneously that they had exchanged prisoners and would seek to normalize relations.

That led to a series of meetings in Havana and Washington on restoring diplomatic relations, the most recent of which was held on May 21-22 at the US State Department.

In a significant sign of thawing relations, Cuba recently stepped off the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. Obama announced on April 14 that he would remove Cuba from the list, and a 45-day congressional review period ended on May 29.

Thu Giang

(According to Reuters)