Making good on promises from his administration, President Obama held an exclusive confab with Cuban President Raul Castro during the weekend-long Summit of the Americas in Panama.
The president hailed the meeting as ‘historic’ given that no official talks between leaders of the two nations have occurred in more than 50 years. This step follows Obama’s latest policy on normalizing relations with the communist nation.
Though he failed to offer an expected announcement of the removal of Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terror, Obama promised that the U.S. won’t be ‘imprisoned by the past’ and the his administration will move beyond policies that ’started before I was born.’
Castro detailed that though there remain ‘differences’ between the two governments, ‘we agreed that we can continue to take steps forward that advance our mutual interests.’
The aggressive move by the administration promises to keep the issue alive in the brewing campaign for the White House and will likely become a major focus of at least one of the Republican primary debates with candidates like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz taking a hard-line stance against the administration.
