Washington---A round of US-Cuban talks devoted to human rights will be "preliminary" in nature and used to set a format for future discussions on the issue, the State Department said Friday.
The encounter, to be held in Washington next Tuesday, would be the latest in a series aimed at normalizing ties between the two Cold War-era adversaries.
In announcing the talks on Thursday, Cuban foreign ministry official Luis Pedroso said they showed Havana's willingness "to take up with the United States any subject, despite our differences, on the basis of equality and reciprocity."
The US delegation will be led by Tom Malinowski, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, a State Department official said.
The meeting is "to discuss the methodology and structure of future human rights talks," the official said.
"This preliminary meeting reflects our continued focus on human rights and democratic principles in Cuba," the official said. "Human rights are and will continue to be a priority."
The talks have advanced little by little since US President Barack Obama and Cuba's President Raul Castro surprised the world by deciding December 17 to work toward restoring relations severed for more than 50 years.
Alternating between Havana and Washington, the talks have been broken up into sessions devoted to specific issues.
A US delegation traveled to Havana March 25 to follow up on the re-establishment of telecommunications links.
But the pace of the talks has left little time to achieve a full restoration of diplomatic ties, with embassies reopening in both countries, by the Summit of the Americas in Panama two weeks from now.
Cuba is slated to participate in the summit for the first time, and the White House has expressed hope to reestablish relations by then.
AFP
