PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, April 19 (Xinhua)
-- While U.S. President Barack Obama and his 33 hemispheric neighbors wrapped up
a summit here on Sunday, hopes are soaring high for a potential thaw of a
half-century cold war between Washington and Havana.
At the opening ceremony of the Fifth Summit of the
Americas held in Trinidad and Tobago, Obama vowed to seek a "new beginning" with
Cuba, the only country in the continent that is excluded from the summit.
"I am prepared to have my administration engage with
the Cuban government on a wide range of issues -- from human rights, free
speech, and democratic reform to drugs, migration, and economic issues," Obama
stated.
Earlier in the week, the Obama administration had
already taken measures to remove restrictions on Cuban Americans' family travel
and remittances back to Cuba, signaling "a new direction" toward the warming of
relations with Cuba.
The conciliatory move prompted a quick response from
Cuban leader Raul Castro, who told a regional summit in Venezuela on Thursday
that his country was open for talks with Washington about "everything."
"We have sent word to the U.S. government in private
and in public that we are willing to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom
of the press, political prisoners, everything," he said.
"We could be wrong, we admit it. We're human beings,"
Castro said. "We're willing to sit down to talk as it should be done, whenever."
Castro's offer for talks was also warmly greeted by
senior U.S. officials.
"I think the strongest reaction that people had is
the admission by Castro that they might as well have been wrong. I am
particularly struck by that," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told
reporters.
In a rare acknowledgment, U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton said that the U.S. policy toward Cuba had "failed."
The three-day Americas summit was meant to focus on
economy and many other issues, but U.S.-Cuban relations apparently took the
center stage, accompanied by widespread support among the leaders for the
removal of the U.S. embargo against Havana and the return of Cuba to the
Organization of American States (OAS). Cuba was expelled from the OAS in 1962 at
U.S. behest.
At the close of the meeting, some leaders were
already talking about Cuba's participation in the next summit.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he
believed this was the last Summit of the Americas without the presence of Cuba.
"The whole continent favors the entrance of Cuba in
this summit. There is no longer an explanation for Cuba's exclusion," Lula said.
OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza said he will push for
the reinstatement of Cuba to the pan-American group when its members meet in
May's general assembly.
"I believe that at the next summit in three years'
time, it's reasonable to think that Cuba will be present," Insulza said.
NO
OVER-EXPECTATION
Despite the conciliatory words from both sides, many
believe that concrete steps need to be taken before the current momentum loses
steam.
While taking Obama's conciliatory gestures to Cuba as
"positive," analysts also cautioned against expectations for a quick thaw of
U.S.-Cuba relations, citing the lack of substantial steps, such as a promise of
U.S. support for Cuba's OAS membership or a call for lifting the embargo, which
would require Congressional approval.
The Obama administration, too, was cautious, saying
that while there are "positive signs," words need to be matched by actions.
Speaking at the close of the summit, the U.S.
president said that Washington's policy cannot be changed "overnight" and that
"issues of political prisoners, freedom of speech and democracy are important,
and can't simply be brushed aside."
"We're anxious to see the actions of the Cubans,"
Gibbs said, adding that they shall include "releasing political prisoners,
stopping the taking of money from remittances and improving freedom of the
press."
It remains unclear how the Cuban government will
respond to the U.S. call for such steps. In the past, Cuba has always rejected
linking conditions to the normalization of ties.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, April 19
(Xinhua)-- U.S. President Barack Obama said here on Sunday that he has seen
"potential positive signs" in U.S. relations with Cuba and Venezuela in the past
few days.
He made the remarks at a news conference after the
closing of the Fifth Summit of the Americas, held in the Caribbean twin island
state of Trinidad and Tobago. Full story
WASHINGTON, April 19 (Xinhua) -- It is still "way
down the road" for the United States to end its economic embargo on Cuba,
despite the recent softening of rhetoric between the two countries ,said a White
House economic aide on Sunday.
"That's way down the road, and it's going to depend
on what Cuba did, Cuba does going forward," said Lawrence Summers, U.S.
President Barack Obama's top advisor, at a NBC TV program. Full story
Prime Minister Patrick Manning of the host country Trinidad and Tobago addressses the closing ceremony of the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, April 19, 2009.(Xinhua/Pool) Photo Gallery>>>
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, April 19 (Xinhua)
-- The Fifth Summit of the Americas closed here on Sunday in what Prime Minister
Patrick Manning of the host country Trinidad and Tobago described as a "new
spirit of cooperation."
Manning said he was "extremely pleased" at the
outcome of the summit, and that "a new spirit of cooperation was very evident in
the conduct of business" at the three-day gathering of leaders from 34 countries
of the Western Hemisphere. Full story
U.S. President Barack Obama (L) shakes hands with El Salvador's president-elect Mauricio Funes (R) as El Salvador's President Antonio Saca looks on in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, April 19, 2009. Barack Obama met with Central American leaders on the sidelines of the 5th Summit of the Americas in the Caribbean twin island state of Trinidad and Tobago Sunday. (Xinhua/Foto Presidencia El Salvador/William Martinez) Photo Gallery>>>
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, April 19 (Xinhua)
-- U.S. President Barack Obama said Sunday that the United States wants to be an
"effective partner" of Central America and he is willing to learn how to do it.
"I am looking forward to hearing more about how the
United States can be an effective partner with all the countries represented,"
the president told reporters before meeting Central American leaders on the
sidelines of the 5th Summit of the Americas in the Caribbean twin island state
of Trinidad and Tobago. Full story
PORT OF SPAIN, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Leaders attending
an Americas summit here welcomed on Saturday U.S. President Barack Obama's offer
of building closer ties with Latin American countries.
"We all acknowledge a new reality in the Americas, a
new spirit of understanding and cooperation to respectfully deal with Cuba,
climate change and economic crisis in the world today," Panama's President Matin
Torrijos Espino told a plenary session of the 5th Summit of the Americas, which
opened Friday in the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. Full story
