Obama & Castro shake hands during historic encounter
US President Barack Obama shook hands with Cuban President Raul Castro at a summit in Panama on Friday. This now sets the stage for a historic Saturday meeting between the pair, as the two countries seek to re-establish diplomatic relations.
Obama and Castro encountered each other in the midst of other foreign leaders at the Summit of the Americas, which is currently being held in Panama City. Photographs and videos from the event showed the two shaking hands as they greeted one another as well as nodding as they spoke.
Leaders of the United States and Cuba have rarely spoken over the past 50 or so years because of an American embargo implemented against Havana, which was put in place shortly after Fidel Castro led a socialist revolution in the 1950s. However, last year, the two sides announced that they would look to mend their strained relationship.
US National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan confirmed to the Huffington Post that Obama and Castro shook hands, but a White House official told Reuters it was “an informal interaction and there was not a substantive conversation between the two leaders.”
Regardless, the meeting was seen as yet another sign of thawing relations between Cuba and the US. Obama and Castro also spoke on the phone on Wednesday and are expected to meet again on Saturday, when they will discuss more substantive issues regarding rapprochement between the two nations.
Speaking on Friday, Obama said the US is not looking to interfere with Latin American countries as it used to.
“The days in which our agenda in this hemisphere so often presumed that the United States could meddle with impunity, those days are past,” he said, as quoted by Reuters.
Some travel restrictions have already been lifted, but Cuba wants to be removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism before full diplomatic ties are restored. The State Department has already recommended that Obama should make such a move and he is expected to announce the removal of Cuba in the near future.
Obama says he is looking to reopen the US Embassy in Cuba and does not want American diplomats to be constrained by travel restrictions.
The US President also said on Friday that although there are areas where the two countries do not agree, he doesn’t think this should stop them from restoring ties.
“As we move towards the process of normalization, we’ll have our differences government to government with Cuba on many issues. Just as we differ at times with other nations within the Americas, just as we differ with our closest allies,” Obama said.
RT
Maher Taki