Talks highlight 'profound differences'

The United States and Cuba fell short of setting dates to reopen embassies but agreed to meet again to overcome deep rifts after they wrapped up historic talks on Thursday aimed at normalizing relations.

Cuban officials and the highest ranking US delegation to visit Havana in 35 years praised the tone of their landmark discussions as they worked to restore ties broken off in 1961, but they sparred over human rights and admitted to "profound differences".

They must still decide on a date and location for their next meeting.

It was the first get-together since US President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro surprised the world in December by simultaneously announcing plans to normalize ties after decades of enmity.

Roberta Jacobson, the US assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, said the talks had been "positive and productive".

The two sides discussed technical issues that need to be worked out to open embassies. However, Jacobson said, "I can't tell you exactly when that will happen."

The broader goal of normalizing ties will take time, she cautioned: "Those issues that are part of the full range of normalization are complex, and they reflect profound differences between our two countries and will continue to be discussed."

Human rights debate

After a final round of talks in the afternoon, Jacobson issued a statement saying she had "pressed the Cuban government for improved human rights conditions".

Cuban delegation chief Josefina Vidal said her government "has never responded to pressures", but she invited the US to talk more about human rights because countries with deep differences "can live together".

Addressing another sensitive issue that has angered Cuba for decades, she urged Obama to take more steps to modify the crippling US economic embargo.

Last week, the US Treasury Department eased travel restrictions for certain categories of US visitors to Cuba and removed some trade obstacles.

The new measures will allow the export of communications devices and supporting services to the island.

Vidal told reporters that Cuba was willing to receive a US telecommunications company to "explore the business possibilities in that area, which can be beneficial".

Along with human rights, Cuba outlined other obstacles in the relationship. Vidal demanded that Cuba be taken off the US list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism.

However, she praised Obama for easing the US trade embargo and urging Congress to lift it entirely.

"It was a first meeting. This is a process," Vidal said.

In the next weeks, she said, the US and Cuba will schedule a second round of talks, which may or may not be the time to finalize an agreement.

The US and Cuba also talked about human trafficking, environmental protection and how to coordinate responses to such things as oil spills or Ebola outbreaks.

The need for at least one future round of talks could set back US hopes of reopening the embassies before April's Summit of the Americas, which Obama and Castro are expected to attend.

Still, after so many years of mutual suspicion, each side stressed the importance of the collegial atmosphere in Havana that included long working lunches and a dinner together.

"Look at my face," Gustavo Machin, Cuba's deputy chief of North American affairs said, smiling.

"It reflects the spirit in which we've been talking up till now."

AP-AFP

(China Daily 01/24/2015 page12)