Obama: US, Cuba re-open embassies, restore relations
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The United States and Cuba have reached an agreement to re-open embassies and restore formal diplomatic relations after more than 50 years, President Barack Obama said Wednesday.
In a statement, the Cuban government said the countries would re-open embassies in each other's capitals on July 20. Speaking from the White House on Wednesday, Obama called the move "yet another demonstration that we don't have to be imprisoned by the past."
"Our efforts to isolate Cuba, despite our good intentions, increasingly had the opposite effect," Obama said.
Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro struck a deal in December to thaw diplomatic relations severed by the United States in 1961, soon after the island's revolution. Re-opening embassies was considered a key step in the process.
Read More No decision yet on US-Cuba embassies: Diplomat
On Wednesday, Obama urged Congress to scrap a long-standing trade embargo, allowing goods and people to flow more freely between the U.S. and Cuba. The Cuban government in a statement called lifting the blockade "indispensable for the normalization of relations."
The sides held talks late last month, attempting to nail down specifics of normalizing relations. They were the first negotiations since the U.S. removed Cuba for a list of state sponsors of terrorism in April.
Obama noted that "serious differences" linger between the countries on civil liberties and human rights.
"Cuba shall continue to be involved in the process to update its economic and social model in order to build a prosperous and sustainable socialism," the Cuban government said.
The countries hold interest sections in each other's capitals rather than embassies. Currently, U.S. diplomats need permission to leave Havana, while Cuban diplomats cannot travel outside of Washington or New York.
Washington previously stressed that it wanted assurances its diplomats could move more freely around Cuba.
- CNBC's Everett Rosenfeld contributed to this report
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