Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro met in the first such encounter between the U.S. and Cuba in more than 50 years and pledged to move ahead with normalizing relations while cautioning that change may come slowly.
“We will continue to try to lift up our concerns about democracy and human rights,” Obama said Saturday while sitting next to Castro at the Summit of the Americas in Panama. “We can disagree with a spirit of respect and civility and over time it is possible for us to turn the page.” Castro said he is willing to “discuss everything.”
The most extensive interaction between presidents of the U.S. and Cuba in five decades, which a White House aide said lasted about an hour, has been closely watched by leaders at the summit, as well as the international community. At the summit’s opening ceremony, where Obama and Castro shook hands, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he wanted to “commend the leadership” of the presidents in seeking to normalize ties.
“We will continue to try to lift up our concerns about democracy and human rights.”
President Barack Obama
The restoration of diplomatic relations includes removing Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, a key issue for the Havana government, which says the designation has harmed the nation’s economy. A White House aide said Saturday the president will make a decision in the near future on the designation, which as been place since 1982.
‘Discuss Everything’
“We are willing to discuss everything but we need to be patient,” Castro said through a translator. “We could be persuaded of some things; of others we might not be persuaded.”
“But when I say that I agreed with everything the president just said, I include that we agree to disagree.”
Their comments at the bilateral meeting echoed statements they made earlier in the day during speeches at the gathering of 35 nations. The region’s leaders praised the historic step of improving ties between the two nations while attacking new U.S. sanctions against Venezuela.
Speaking at his first Summit of the Americas since they began in 1994, Castro Saturday called Obama an “honest man” and joked that, as Cuba’s leader, he should get to speak six times longer than anyone else since the nation has been blocked from that many gatherings. Obama, he said, can’t be blamed for policies against Cuba put in place by 10 previous presidents. He went on to recount 200 years of Cuban history, including repeated “interferences” by successive U.S. governments.
‘Historic Occasion’
Obama, saying he wasn’t interested in fighting battles that started “before I was born,” urged the assembled leaders to get past ideological differences and focus on the future.
“The fact that President Castro and I are both sitting here today marks a historic occasion,” Obama said.
After the summit, Obama said he told Castro in private what he has said in public: The U.S.-Cuba dialog will proceed, even as both side continue to have differences.
“I’m optimistic that we will continue to make progress and this can and will be a turning point” not only with Cuba but across the region, Obama said at a news conference.
Obama and Castro met privately with aides and made progress on opening embassies in both nations, although logistical obstacles remain, such as letting the Cuban delegation bank in the U.S., according to a senior administration official at the meeting.
The two men talked about the U.S. designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, although the discussion wasn’t lengthy, said the aide who requested anonymity to describe the meeting. The meeting didn’t include a lot of demands, he said.
Terrorism Designation
The aide said Obama will make a decision on the terrorism designation in the near future, then he will notify Congress, which would have 45 days to respond.
The Panama Summit has offered the U.S. the chance to recast its relationship with Latin America, where even close allies have been frustrated by the more than five-decade embargo against Cuba. U.S. officials came to the summit seeking momentum for initiatives to boost economic cooperation, counter drug trafficking and promote alternative energy programs.
U.S. sanctions last month against some Venezuelan officials, in which the South American country was called a threat to national security, caught much of the region by surprise and were criticized or ridiculed by leaders including Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
Venezuela Sanctions
“The first thing I did was laugh,” Fernandez recalled after being told of the sanctions, saying the U.S. defense budget dwarfed that of Venezuela. “How can it be that the largest power in the world considers the Republic of Venezuela a threat.”
Obama expanded U.S. sanctions on March 10 to people responsible for eroding human rights, persecuting political opponents, curtailing press freedoms and using violence or arrest against protesters in Venezuela.
At the Panama summit, Obama and Castro shook hands and exchanged brief remarks on Friday night before a formal dinner with the other leaders. A White House official, requesting anonymity to discuss a private conversation, said the leaders didn’t have a substantive policy discussion.
Removing Cuba’s designation as a backer of terrorism -- one of the biggest sticking points in the negotiations thus far -- may be brought up by Castro. The U.S. State Department completed the review ordered by Obama and forwarded it to the White House, where aides will provide a final recommendation, Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser said.
Review Process
“We’re not all the way through that process,” Rhodes said.
The State Department recommended this week that Obama take Cuba off the list, according to an aide on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Iran, Sudan and Syria also are on the list.
Representatives of Castro’s government have said the designation stands in the way of restoring diplomatic relations. The designation bars the country, just 90 miles away from Florida, from access to banks in the U.S.
“Raul needs Cuba to be taken off the state sponsors of terrorism list,” said Chris Sabatini, who teaches international affairs at New York’s Columbia University. “It’s a national humiliation.”
Obama could try to extract concessions from Castro on human rights in exchange for delisting Cuba, he said. The island nation’s human rights record came under scrutiny in Panama on Thursday, after Cuban dissidents were roughed up by Castro supporters at the civil society forum.
Republican Critics
Opponents of Obama’s new approach cited the incident as evidence that the communist regime will continue to repress free speech even after restoring relations with the U.S.
“Cuban regime thugs beat up several Cuban dissident leaders and American citizens visiting Panama for the summit,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said Thursday in a statement. “Cuba has done nothing to earn the legitimacy President Obama continues to bestow on the regime.”
Several sticking points remain as the governments work to set up embassies and fully restore diplomatic relations. Castro has called for the U.S. to return the military base at Guantanamo and end the half-century trade embargo against Cuba, which was imposed by Congress and must be rescinded by lawmakers. The two countries are also at odds over how many embassy staff will be allowed to be stationed in Havana and how freely they’ll be able to travel within the country.
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