US, Cuba to reopen embassies after 54 years

The US and Cuban governments have agreed to reopen their embassies in Havana and Washington, respectively, restoring diplomatic relations severed unilaterally in 1961 by the administration of then US president John F. Kennedy.

"We don't have to be imprisoned by the past," President Barack Obama said in the Rose Garden at the White House. He added that US Secretary of State John Kerry would formally travel to Havana before September to "raise the American flag over our embassy once more."

Obama also called on the US Congress to lift the trade embargo that prevents US citizens from traveling to Cuba or doing business on the island nation.

The announcement comes after the countries normalized relations in December, and following talks between Obama and Castro in April, the first between its leaders in more than 50 years. Since then, the US has taken Cuba off its list of state sponsors of terrorism, and has approved a ferry service from Florida to the island.

"With this change we will able to substantially increase our contacts with the Cuban people. We'll have more personnel at our embassy and our diplomats will have the ability to engage more broadly across the island," Obama said. "On issues of common interest, like counter-terrorism, disaster response and development, we will find new ways to cooperate with Cuba."

In a letter from Cuban President Raúl Castro to Obama, the Cuban government simultaneously announced the reestablishment of diplomatic relations.

"Cuba makes this decision based on the reciprocal intention to develop respectful relations of cooperation between our peoples and governments," Castro stated in the letter cited by the official Cuban communist party newspaper Granma.

The two countries had maintained interests sections in each other's capitals since 1977, under the legal protection of Switzerland.

Meanwhile, official Cuban news agency Prensa Latina said the reestablishment of relations was a step in the right direction, but warned there was still a long way to go, citing the US embargo and the "illegal occupation" of Guantánamo Bay.