Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Assistant Secretary of State Charles Rivkin will travel to Cuba Tuesday to sign an agreement re-establishing air services between the two countries for the first time in 50 years.
The meeting in Havana will formalize an agreement reached in December to expand the number of scheduled charter flights between the U.S. and Cuba.
“While U.S. law prohibits travel to Cuba for tourist activities, this arrangement will facilitate authorized travel, enhance traveler choices, and strengthen people-to-people links between the two countries,” the State Department said in a statement.
“Expanding authorized travel is a critical focus of President Obama’s approach to Cuba policy, which emphasizes engagement with the Cuban people,” the agency added.
The scheduled charter flights are expected to begin some time later this year.
President Obama may also make an historic trip to Havana during his remaining months in office.
Ben Rhodes, the president’s deputy national security adviser, in early January declined to say whether Obama plans to take the trip, saying only that moves need to be taken by both governments to make the normalizing of relations between the U.S. and Cuba “irreversible.”
Fox’s travel to Havana comes the same week Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca and other Cuban officials will be in Washington for a second round of talks on new bilateral trade regulations with U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.
The minister will lead the Cuban delegation to the Second U.S.-Cuba Regulatory Dialogue scheduled for Feb. 17-18. The dialogue will focus on the scope and limitations of recently announced modifications to the U.S. trade embargo.
The meeting is “another opportunity to work directly with our Cuban counterparts to better understand the way our two governments and economies can work together in support of the Cuban people,” Pritzker said.
Since Obama announced in December 2014 his intent to work to normalize ties with Havana, Washington has relaxed financial restrictions on banking institutions involved in handling Cuban transactions, and is allowing more travel between the two countries.
The first regulatory dialogue was held in October. Malmierca also plans to meet with members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and visit the state of Virginia at the invitation of Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
