With Progress, Cuba-U.S. Talks to Continue on Friday

HAVANA, Cuba, May 22 (acn) "We have made progress in negotiations," said Yuri Gala, Director of Bilateral Affairs of the United States Department of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, while informing that the third round of talks would continue on Friday.

The delegations of Cuba and the United States extended until Friday the third round of bilateral talks taking place at the State Department in Washington.

On Thursday the two delegations had a working session that began at nine in the morning and ended at four thirty in the afternoon at the headquarters of the U.S. diplomacy.

The third round of talks is devoted to the process of reestablishment of diplomatic relations and the opening of embassies, which has been described several times as a respectful, professional and on a reciprocal basis.

Likewise, the governments also foresaw to analyze matters concerning the operation of diplomatic missions and the behavior of their officials, an issue in which both have divergent views about the interpretation of the United Nations Charter and the Vienna Conventions.

This will be a topic on which, in order to move forward, we should reach a common vision that allows for an adequate context on a reciprocal basis, in order to achieve results.
The two nations have taken important steps to reestablish the diplomatic ties broken over half a century ago and that began with the announcement made by presidents Raul Castro and Barack Obama on December 17.
In this respect Cuba has reiterated that one thing is the reestablishment of diplomatic relations and another one is the process of normalization of relations, which will be a much longer and complex path that will first have to pass through the lifting of the economic, commercial and financial blockade against the Cuban people and the return of the illegally occupied territory of the Guantanamo Naval Base.

The U.S. delegation was headed by the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roberta Jacobson, while the Cuban delegation was headed by Josefina Vidal, director general of the United States Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Four months after the first round of talks on the process of reestablishment of diplomatic relations and the opening of embassies, the governments of Cuba and the United States returned to the negotiating table, on a rainy day in the U.S. capital.