Kerry Acknowledges Role of Leaders from Cuba and the USA

US Secretary of State, John Kerry, highlighted today the role played by Presidents Raul Castro (Cuba) and Barack Obama (United States) in the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Kerry extolled them for agreeing to focus on the issues and possibilities of the future, something that, he said, is much more productive than sticking to the past.

Kerry said that the mutual reopening of embassies between his country and Cuba comes thanks to a personal decision of President Obama to change a failed policy that had been maintained for too long.

He also stressed that, though there are differences between Washington and Havana, the two governments identified areas for cooperation, like environmental protection, immigration or telecommunications.

According to Kerry, the step is worth it because circumstances have changed, a reflection of which is that the step has been very much welcomed by the international community.

Kerry, who is in Vienna attending a crucial round of talks to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran, will attend this summer the reopening of the US embassy in Cuba, which would be the first visit of a US Secretary of State since 1945.

Both Obama and Raul Castro ratified today the decision to reestablish relations, and the US president urged Congress to lift the unilateral sanctions imposed on Cuba for over half a century because that isolation policy failed and was counterproductive for the United States.