Senior White House officials said Tuesday that President Obama will be “interacting” with Cuban leader Raul Castro at the Summit of the Americas late this week but said no formal bilateral meeting has been scheduled.
“I’m sure that President Obama will be interacting with President Castro at the summit events and as the leaders gather at the margins of those events,” Ben Rhodes, deputy White House national security adviser, told reporters Tuesday.
“We don’t have a bilateral meeting that we’re formally scheduling but there are many opportunities for leaders to have conversations” he continued. “We will keep you updated on any interactions with Raul Castro.”
Rhodes said the Obama administration supports Cuba’s inclusion in the summit, the first in which Havana is participating. At the same time, U.S. officials are very supportive of Panama’s emphasis on the importance of maintaining civil societies in the region and its inclusion of Cuban dissidents and democracy activists.
Cuba’s previous exclusion, he said, “only pointed to the failure of U.S. Cuba policy.”
Rhodes said he doesn’t anticipate any type of announcement before the summit that U.S. and Cuban officials had reached a breakthrough in negotiations to open embassies in each others countries.
While negotiations have made progress, he said more talks remain on opening embassies.
A major Cuban priority before opening the embassies and truly normalizing diplomatic relations is a U.S. decision to remove the island nation from its state sponsors of terrorism list.
The State Department is still reviewing that decision, and Rhodes said he didn’t know the exact timing on when it will make its recommendation to the president.
After State makes its recommendation, Obama will submit his own decision on the matter to Congress, which then has 45 days to reject the recommendation.
