Fresh talks as US and Cuba aim to restore full diplomatic ties

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/17/us-cuba-talks-diplomatic-ties

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A new round of negotiations to restore full diplomatic ties with Cuba will take place next week in Washington, according to a delegation ofUS senators who said they were hopeful the two sides would reach a deal soon.

Mark Warner of Virginia, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota made their first trip to Cuba over the weekend in support of a bill Klobuchar is sponsoring to lift the US trade embargo on Cuba.

US House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is traveling to Cuba on Tuesday with a delegation of congressional Democrats, Pelosi’s office announced.

Teams of negotiators led by assistant secretary of state Roberta Jacobson and Cuba’s top diplomat for US affairs, Josefina Vidal, are working to resolve Cuban demands that include the easing of banking restrictions on its diplomats in the US and limits on US support for dissident groups that Cuba considers illegal.

The US wants Cuba to eliminate some of the heavy security cordon around its interests section in Havana and allow unrestricted travel for its diplomats in Cuba, among other demands.

“We look with hope and expectations to the meetings next week in Washington between the Cuban government and the American State Department to make progress,” Warner told reporters in Havana on Tuesday.

He did not say if he expected the pending issues to all be resolved in the coming round of talks but told a large group of reporters, most from Cuban state media, that diplomats often moved more slowly than politicians want. The next three to six months are a key window for progress in the normalization of ties between Cuba and the US, he said.

“Frankly I’m optimistic because the negotiators are two women and we know how to get things done,” McCaskill said.

“We don’t think any of these things are going to stall out the ability to get full diplomatic relations, hopefully soon.”