Georgetown: The United States and Cuba have reached an agreement to re-open embassies and restore formal diplomatic relations after more than 50 years and the Cuban government said the countries would re-open embassies in each other's capitals on July 20, according to President of the Guyana Cuba Solidarity Movement (GCSM), Haleem Khan.
Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro struck a deal in December to thaw diplomatic relations severed by the United States in 1961, soon after the island's revolution. Re-opening embassies was considered a key step in the process.
On Wednesday, Khan said Obama urged Congress to scrap a long-standing trade embargo, allowing goods and people to flow more freely between the U.S. and Cuba. The Cuban government in a statement called lifting the blockade "indispensable for the normalization of relations."
“We don’t have to be imprisoned by the past,” said Mr. Obama, who made history in April when he met and shook hands with President Raúl Castro at a summit gathering in Panama. “When something isn’t working, we can and should change.”
"Cuba shall continue to be involved in the process to update its economic and social model in order to build a prosperous and sustainable socialism," the Cuban government said.
Kahn further noted that the Obama administration officials said the re-establishment of an embassy would allow American diplomats to travel much more freely around the island — they will have to notify the Cuban government of their movements, but will no longer need to seek its permission — and talk to many more Cubans, in Havana and elsewhere.
The countries hold interest sections in each other's capitals rather than embassies. Currently, U.S. diplomats need permission to leave Havana, while Cuban diplomats cannot travel outside of Washington or New York.
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