International News

HAVANA, (APP/AFP): Cuba Thursday hailed Barack Obama’s
planned March visit to the island as a step towards mending bilateral relations and expressed willingness to discuss human rights with the US leader.
“His visit will represent a step forward in the improvement of
relations between Cuba and the United States,” Josefina Vidal, head of US relations in the Cuban foreign ministry, told reporters.
“It will be an opportunity for President Obama to appreciate the
Cuban reality” and to discuss how to “expand bilateral dialogue and cooperation between the two countries,” she said in English.
Obama’s March 21-22 visit to Cuba along with First Lady Michelle
Obama will be the first by a sitting US president since 1928, long before the communist island’s 1959 revolution.
The two countries restored diplomatic relations in July but a
five-decade US trade embargo is still in place.
“In order to achieve the normalization of relations between the two
countries, the blockade has to be lifted and the territory occupied by the
naval base in Guantanamo has to be returned,” Vidal said.