Panama City--US President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro headed toward historic talks in Panama on Saturday, sealing efforts to bury more than 50 years of animosity.
Taking their bid to restore diplomatic ties to a new level, Obama and Castro will have a discussion on the sidelines of the second and final day of the Summit of the Americas in Panama City, according to US officials.
The two leaders already said hello late Friday, greeting each other and shaking hands -- a gesture rich in symbolism -- as other leaders looked on, before the 35-nation summit's inauguration.
The face-to-face talks will be the climax of their surprise announcement on December 17 that, after 18 months of secret negotiations, they would seek to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba that broke off in 1961.
Some 30 regional leaders gathered around an oval table in a convention center Saturday, with two red and blue peace doves in the middle. It is Cuba's first participation at the 21-year-old summit.
"The pleasantries between President Barack Obama and Raul Castro offer hope of a seventh Summit of the Americas free of the chains of the Cold War," said Arturo Lopez-Levy, professor at New York University's Center for Global Affairs.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos summed up the mood, saying "an old obstacle in relations between Latin America and North America is being removed."
The last time US and Cuban leaders met was in 1956, three years before Fidel Castro came to power.
"We're in new territory here," said senior Obama advisor Ben Rhodes, referring to the flurry of diplomacy that included, on Thursday, the first meeting between US and Cuban foreign ministers since 1958.
"This is not just about two leaders sitting down together," he said, citing Obama's decision to ease trade and travel restrictions with communist Cuba.
"It's about fundamentally changing how the United States engages Cuba -- its government, its people, its civil society."
AFP
