Reuters, Washington :
US President Barack Obama said on Monday that he hopes the United States will open an embassy in Cuba by the time of a Western Hemisphere summit in Panama in mid-April.
In an interview with Reuters, Obama also cautioned that it will take more time to fully establish normal relations with Cuba after more than a half-century rupture.
“My hope is that we will be able to open an embassy, and that some of the initial groundwork will have been laid” before the April 10-11 Summit of the Americas in Panama City, Obama said.
“Keep in mind that our expectation has never been that we would achieve full normal relations immediately. There’s a lot of work that still has to be done,” he said.
In a historic agreement, Washington and Havana announced on Dec. 17 that they planned to restore diplomatic relations following 18 months of secret talks.
Two rounds of “normalization” talks in Havana and Washington have since made quick progress toward renewing official ties.
Cuba is keen to have Washington’s official recognition of its one-party system run by the Cuban Communist Party, while the Obama administration believes establishing formal relations will strengthen its hand in Latin America where longstanding US efforts to isolate Cuba have failed resoundingly.
