WASHINGTON: The United States and Cuba established diplomatic relations on Wednesday and will reopen diplomatic missions in each other’s capital on July 20, the White House said.

Earlier in Havana, a US diplomat delivered a note from President Barack Obama to Cuban President Raul Castro, restoring diplomatic ties.

The short ceremony at the Cuban Foreign Ministry ended 54 years of tensions that began during the Eisenhower administration. Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the chief of mission at the US Interests Section, delivered the note.

“The United States and the Republic of Cuba have decided to re-establish diplomatic relations and permanent missions in our respective countries on July 20, 2015,” President Obama wrote in the letter.

The White House received a similar letter from the Cuban president, saying: “We want to develop friendship between our two nations that is based on the equality of rights and the people’s free will.”

“When the United States shuttered our embassy in 1961, I don’t think anyone thought it would be more than half a century before it reopened,” President Obama said in remarks from the White House Rose Garden.

US and Cuban presidents exchange letters confirming the move

“This is an important step forward in the process if normalising relations between our two countries and peoples that we initiated last December,” President Obama said.

President Raul Castro said the decision was consistent with the announcements the two countries made on Dec. 17, 2014, regarding bilateral ties and also with the high-level discussions between the two governments.

“In making this decision, the United States is encouraged by the reciprocal intention to develop respectful and cooperative relations between our two peoples and governments,” President Obama said.

“Cuba hopes to resolve differences with the United States through peaceful means, that each nation must respect the territorial integrity of the other and they should not interfere in each other’s political affairs,” President Raul Castro said.

In the letters they exchanged with each other, the US and Cuban presidents underlined the principles of sovereign equality and of the settlement of disputes by peaceful means that bind states to “refrain from any threat or use of force against the territorial integrity” of other states.

They also emphasised the importance of “political independence” of a state and of “non-interference in matters which are within (its) domestic jurisdiction.”

They said that the development of friendly relations among nations should be “based on respect for the principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and cooperation in solving international problems and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all.”

The two leaders noted that both Cuba and the United States of America were parties to international conventions and treaties that upheld these principles.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry, however, said that complete normalisation of relations could not be achieved as the US retained its sanctions and embargoes on Cuba.

Earlier, President Obama urged the US Congress to lift the embargo that prevents Cubans from travelling or doing business in Cuba.

He has already relaxed several of the prohibitions on trade and travel between the two countries, but many remain in place and can only be removed by legislation.

“Americans and Cubans alike are ready to move forward. I believe it’s time for Congress to do the same,” Mr Obama said.

“We’ve already seen members from both parties begin that work.”

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2015

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