Cuban President Raul Castro and Barack Obama shake hands ahead of the VII Americas Summit. PHOTO: AFP
PANAMA CITY: US President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro heralded a new era of bilateral relations on Saturday as they both addressed a landmark summit ahead of historic one-on-one talks.
Sitting around a table with some 30 other regional leaders in Panama City, Obama and Castro spoke one after the other in an unprecedented public exchange between the leaders of the Cold War-era foes.
“This shift in US policy represents a turning point for our entire region,” Obama said. “The fact that President Castro and I are sitting here today marks a historic occasion.”
As the US leader looked on, Castro declared: “President Obama is an honest man.”
But both leaders acknowledged the two countries, as they negotiate to restore diplomatic relations which broke off in 1961, will continue to have disagreements.
Obama cited the human rights situation in Cuba, while Castro renewed calls for the US Congress to lift a decades-old embargo.
But Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos summed up the mood, saying: “An old obstacle in relations between Latin America and North America is being removed.”
Taking their bid to restore diplomatic ties to a new level, Obama and Castro will have a discussion on the sidelines of the second and final day of the Summit of the Americas. The last time US and Cuban leaders met was in 1956, three years before Fidel Castro came to power.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 12th, 2015.
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