WASHINGTON // The US and Cuba will reopen their embassies in Havana and Washington, heralding a “new chapter” in relations after a half-century of hostility, president Barack Obama announced yesterday.
“We don’t have to be imprisoned by the past,” Mr Obama said from the White House. “Americans and Cubans alike are ready to move forward.”
Cuban television broadcast Mr Obama’s statement live, underscoring the new spirit.
The embassy agreement marks the biggest tangible step toward normalising relations since the surprise announcement in December that the US and Cuba were restarting diplomatic ties. The posts in Washington and Havana are scheduled to open July 20, Cuba’s foreign ministry said.
US secretary of state John Kerry will travel to Cuba for the opening of the US embassy.
For Mr Obama, ending the US freeze with Cuba is central to his foreign policy legacy as he nears the end of his presidency.
Mr Obama has long promoted the value of direct engagement with global foes and has argued that the US embargo on the communist island 145 kilometres south of Florida was ineffective.
The US cut off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961 after Fidel Castro’s revolution.
Washington spent decades trying to either actively overthrow the communist government or isolate the island, including toughening the economic embargo first imposed by president Dwight D Eisenhower.
Since the late 1970s, the US and Cuba have operated diplomatic missions called interests sections in each other’s capitals. The missions are technically under the protection of Switzerland and do not enjoy the same status as embassies.
Significant issues remain as the US and Cuba look to normalise relations.
Among them: talks on human rights; demands for compensation for confiscated American properties in Havana, and damages to Cuba from the embargo; and possible cooperation on law enforcement, including the sensitive subject of US fugitives sheltering in Havana.
Mr Obama also wants Congress to repeal the economic embargo on Cuba, though he faces resistance from Republicans and some Democrats. Those opposed to normalising relations with Cuba say Mr Obama is prematurely rewarding a regime that engages in serious human rights abuses.
The president also faces strong opposition in Congress to spending taxpayer dollars on building or refurbishing an embassy in Havana. Congress would have to approve any administration request to spend money on an embassy.
Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-American from Florida, said that opening a US embassy in Cuba “will do nothing to help the Cuban people and is just another trivial attempt for president Obama to go legacy shopping”.
Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the senate foreign relations committee, said the opening of embassies was part of the administration’s “common sense approach to Cuba”.
However, he called for Cuba to recognise that it is out of step with the international community on human rights.
Mr Obama and Cuban president Raul Castro met in April during a regional summit, marking the first time US and Cuban leaders have met in person since 1958.
The embassy announcements come amid what the White House sees as one of the strongest stretches of Mr Obama’s second term. He scored major legislative and legal victories last week, with Congress giving him fast-track authority for an Asia-Pacific free trade deal and the Supreme Court upholding a key provision of his health care law.
* Associated Press