Obama and Castro in historic handshake
NEWS DESK (DİHA) - US President Barack Obama and Cuba's Raul Castro have shaken hands at the Summit of the Americas, a new milestone in efforts to shed decades of animosity between the two countries.
The two leaders - who briefly shook hands once before, at Nelson Mandela's memorial service in Johannesburg in 2013 - exchanged a few words on Friday as UN chief Ban Ki-moon and regional leaders looked on, before taking their seats at a Panama City convention centre. The sight of Obama and Castro in the same room instantly became a potent symbol of their bid to renew diplomatic ties that were severed in 1961.
It was the first time that a Cuban leader attended the summit in its 21-year history. A US official characterised the Obama-Castro greeting as an "informal interaction", adding that "there was not a substantive conversation between the two leaders."
Broader conversation
A widely anticipated broader conversation - the first between US and Cuban leaders since ties broke in 1961 - is expected on Saturday. "The presence here today of President Raul Castro of Cuba embodies a longing expressed by many in the region," Ban said. All the regional leaders then headed to a private dinner. Ben Rhodes, a senior Obama aide, said the extent of Saturday's Obama-Castro meeting had yet to be decided, but that they will "take stock" of the negotiations to reopen embassies and discuss lingering "differences."
Rhodes said Obama and Castro had already discussed the ongoing negotiations and the summit by telephone Wednesday - their second phone call since December, when they announced that the United States and Cuba would move to normalise relations. Underscoring his increasing engagement with Latin America, Obama will also perhaps meet Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who cancelled a US trip in 2013 over revelations of US spying against her.
But in a move that could irritate Havana, Obama held a closed-door discussion before the summit with dissident lawyer Laritza Diversent and political activist Manuel Cuesta Moura, along with a dozen other activists from the Americas. While declaring that the days of US meddling in the region were over, Obama promised civil society representatives that "the United States will stand up alongside you every step of the way."
Turning to Cuba, Obama said that even as "a new chapter" in relations was launched, "we'll have our differences, government to government, with Cuba on many issues." For his part, Castro held talks with the president of the US chamber of commerce, Tom Donohue, putting together the leader of the only communist regime in the Americas with a major figure of capitalism.
The US and Cuban foreign ministers, John Kerry and Bruno Rodriguez, made history themselves late Thursday when they held the highest level talks since 1958, which both sides hailed as "constructive." But Rhodes said there was no decision yet on one of the key obstacles in diplomatic negotiations, Cuba's presence on the US blacklist of state sponsors of terror.
(nt)
