(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The US and Cuba opened two days of historic talks in Havana yesterday to end decades of Cold War-era animosity and re-establish diplomatic relations.
The meetings in Havana follow the historic decision by US President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro in December to seek normal ties.
US deputy assistant secretary of state Alex Lee and Cuban foreign ministry official Josefina Vidal sat down for the first day of closed-door talks in the capital's Convention Centre, which focused on migration issues.
Their opening remarks were not broadcast.
The reopening of mutual embassies, closed after relations broke in 1961, will be at the centre of today's talks, which will be led on the US side by Roberta Jacobson, the US assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.
Jacobson became the highest-ranking American official to visit the communist island since 1980.
On the eve of the talks, Obama urged the Congress to end the decades-long embargo against Cuba, which the Castro regime has blamed for the country's economic woes.
"In Cuba, we are ending a policy that was long past its expiration date," Obama said in his annual State of the Union speech late Tuesday. "When what you have done doesn't work for fifty years. It's time to try something new."
A Cuban foreign ministry official sought to downplay expectations of major breakthroughs this week.
"We can't expect that everything will be resolved in one meeting," the official said, according to state media. "The normalisation of relations is a much longer and complex process in which we must discuss issues of interests for both sides."
The migration talks will tackle an issue that has vexed both nations for years, with Cubans regularly hopping on rickety boats to reach Florida, 145kms away.
Gustavo Machin, a Cuban delegation official, told reporters his government expressed concerns about the US "wet foot, dry foot" policy, complaining that it was the "main stimulus for illegal emigration" to the US.
The policy gives Cubans who reach US soil quick access to permanent residency while those caught at sea are deported back to their island.
The US has seen a surge of Cuban migrants who apparently fear that the US-Cuba negotiations will end the policy. The number of sea intercepts doubled in December compared to the previous year.
Machin said the first day of talks were "constructive" so far but that the two sides "agree that we disagree" on migration issues.
A US official also downplayed expectations of agreements.
For today's embassy talks, the US side wants Cuba to reaccredit its diplomats, lift travel restrictions for them within the island, ease shipments to the US mission and lift a cap on personnel.
Both nations currently have "interests sections" in each other's capitals.
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