Cuba and the United States Don’t Agree on a Date for Opening Embassies

Havana/The fourth round of negotiations between Cuba and the United States to reestablish diplomatic relations ended this Friday without a date for the opening of embassies.

The chief of the US delegation, Robert Jacobsen, confirmed in a press conference in Washington does not believe there will be a fifth round of negotiations. For her part, the director general for the United States in the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Josefina Vidal assured that they would continue working on the issue in the “coming weeks.”

After a two day meeting between the delegations of both countries, Vidal said that the two sides had “continue to advance” on pending issues and highlighted the “professional and respectful climate” of the meeting.

“Both delegations agree to continue the exchanges about aspects relative to the working of the diplomatic missions,” explained the chief of the Cuban delegation shortly after the Havana Government announced in a communication that there was no progress in the reopening of the embassies and that it will take more meetings.

Jacobson expressed her optimism about the advance toward normalization of diplomatic ties and characterized the meeting of the last two days as “hugely productive,” although she recognized that “it is not an easy task due to the complicated history of relations” between the two countries.

In the talks they also addressed matters of civil aviation, human trafficking, fraud and maritime issues. Vidal affirmed that in the upcoming negotiations there would also be an exchange of information on justice and policing, and health and medicine issues.