U.S., Cuba restoring diplomatic ties after 54 years

Chief of Mission at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana Jeffrey DeLaurentis (L) talks to Cuba's interim Foreign Minister Marcelino Medina in Havana July 1, 2015.

REUTERS/ENRIQUE DE LA OSA

The United States and Cuba formally agreed on Wednesday to restore diplomatic relations on July 20, setting up a trip to Havana by John Kerry, who would become the first U.S. secretary of state to visit the country in 70 years.

Sealed by an exchange of letters between U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, the deal fulfills a pledge the former Cold War enemies made six months ago. It also attempts to end the recriminations that have predominated ever since Fidel Castro's rebels overthrew the U.S.-backed government of Fulgencio Batista on Jan. 1, 1959.

The letters set a date of July 20 for the re-establishment of relations, and embassies could be opened at that time or later.

Kerry, speaking from Vienna, said he would visit Havana to raise the U.S. flag outside the future U.S. embassy, currently labeled an interests section.

"The progress that we mark today is yet another demonstration that we don’t have to be imprisoned by the past," Obama said from the White House Rose Garden. "When something isn’t working, we can - and will - change."

Obama noted that ties were severed in the year he was born, 1961.

A long battle of subterfuge and outright aggression followed as Cuba closely aligned with the Soviet Union, nearly leading to nuclear war in 1962 over Soviet missiles stationed on the island.

Isolating Cuba had been a foreign policy pillar under 10 U.S. presidents, continuing long after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Washington's allies repeatedly condemned the policy, and Obama declared it had failed to promote democracy or improve the lives of Cubans living in a one-party state.

"It hasn’t worked for 50 years. It shuts America out of Cuba’s future, and it only makes life worse for the Cuban people," Obama said while noting stark differences between the two governments would remain.

Cuba's Communist government controls the media and represses political opponents, a policy it has justified based on U.S. attempts to destabilize the government and Washington's open support of dissidents.

Castro, 84, Fidel's younger brother and Cuban president since 2008, welcomed diplomatic ties that he said should reinforce the principles of sovereign equality and non-interference in his country.

"Cuba is encouraged by the reciprocal intention to develop respectful and cooperative relations between our two peoples and governments," Castro wrote in his letter to Obama.

Obama said the agreement would increase U.S. contact with ordinary Cubans, permit a larger staff of diplomats and grant them more freedom of movement across the island.

Since 1977, both countries have operated with interests sections protected by the Swiss government.

MAJOR OBSTACLES AHEAD

With diplomatic relations restored, the United States and Cuba will turn to more difficult bilateral problems likely to take years to resolve.

Cuba's Communist government said in a statement that to have normal overall relations, the United States must rescind its economic embargo and return the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, which it has leased since 1903, as sovereign Cuban territory.

Asked whether he could envision a day when the United States might give up the base, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a Pentagon news conference there was "no anticipation and no plan, with respect to the Guantanamo Bay naval station in Cuba."

Obama, a Democrat, has asked the Republican-controlled Congress to lift the 53-year-old embargo, but the conservative leadership in Congress has resisted.

A Cuban government statement said the United States also needed to halt radio and television broadcasts beamed into the country and stop "subversive" programs that the United States says are intended to promote democracy.

While critics including Republican presidential candidates have accused Obama of capitulation, the Cuba deal marks a major achievement for him. Obama has been criticized for foreign policy stumbles, especially in the Middle East.

Public opinion polls show majority support for engaging with Cuba, even among Cuban-Americans who had historically been firm supporters of the embargo.

Following 18 months of secret negotiations brokered by Pope Francis and Canada, Obama and Castro announced in December they planned to reopen embassies and normalize relations. The agreement also included a prisoner swap. 

Source: Reuters

U.S. won't let Russia 'drag us back to the past': Pentagon chief

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter in Washington June 17, 2015.

Reuters/Carlos Barria

The United States and its allies won't let Russia "drag us back to the past", U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in an address in Berlin on Monday, as he accused Moscow of trying to re-create a Soviet-era sphere of influence.

Russia's intervention in Ukraine has put NATO allies in eastern Europe on edge and triggered a series of military moves by the NATO alliance, including an acceleration of exercises and the creation of a NATO rapid response force.

Carter, who will view components of that NATO force later on Monday, said the alliance would keep the door open to an improved relationship with Russia but said flatly: "It's up to the Kremlin to decide."


"We do not seek a cold, let alone a hot war with Russia. We do not seek to make Russia an enemy," Carter said. "But make no mistake: we will defend our allies, the rules-based international order, and the positive future it affords us all."

Carter said on Sunday the United States and NATO were preparing militarily for the prospect that their rift with Russia could even outlast President Vladimir Putin.

COLD WAR PLAYBOOK

During his trip this week, Carter will climb aboard a U.S. warship in Estonia fresh from Baltic Sea drills. In Brussels, he will meet NATO defense chiefs, and could offer more details on plans to pre-position heavy military equipment, officials say.

Moscow has decried the new steps by NATO and threatened to strengthen its own forces and to add more than 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear
arsenal this year.

U.S. officials say Ukraine has illustrated the importance of being able to counter "hybrid warfare," the blend of unidentified troops, propaganda and economic pressure that the West says Russia has used there.

NATO's historic focus had been the conventional threats of the Cold War, which ended in 1991. But Carter said NATO "will not rely on the Cold War playbook", citing instead a combination of military and non-military tools, including sanctions.

He encouraged Europe to keep up its sanctions -- which he called the best tool -- for as long as it takes to change Russia's calculus.

"The United States will not let Russia drag us back to the past," he said.
The United States has refused to provide lethal arms to Ukraine, worried that would only escalate the conflict. Carter at one point said "we've provided weapons to Ukraine" but his spokesman, Brent Colburn, said the secretary misspoke.

Turning his attention to Germany, Carter commended Germany's leadership during the Ukraine crisis. He also sought to encourage a stronger German military role globally. Still, he called for more defense spending "to ensure that Germany's defense investments match Germany's leadership role."

Source: Reuters

U.S. plans to store heavy arms in Baltic, Eastern Europe: source

An aerial view of the Pentagon building in Washington, June 15, 2005.

REUTERS/FILES

The United States plans to store heavy military equipment in the Baltics and Eastern European nations to reassure allies made uneasy by Russian intervention in Ukraine, and to deter further aggression, a senior U.S. official said on Saturday.

"We will pre-position significant equipment," the official said, commenting on a New York Times report that the Pentagon was poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 troops.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to comment on the details of the report, which cited U.S. and allied officials.

The report said the move, if approved, would mark the first time since the Cold War that Washington has stationed heavy military equipment in the newer NATO member states in Eastern Europe that once formed part of the Soviet sphere of influence.

The proposal, which seeks to reassure European allies in the wake of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea in March 2014, is expected to be approved by U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the White House before a NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels this month, the paper said, quoting senior officials.

Asked about the article, a Pentagon spokesman said no decision had been made about the equipment.

"Over the last few years, the United States military has increased the prepositioning of equipment for training and exercises with our NATO allies and partners," Colonel Steve Warren said.

"The U.S. military continues to review the best location to store these materials in consultation with our allies," he said in a statement.

"At this time, we have made no decision about if or when to move to this equipment."

As it now stood, the Times said, the proposal envisaged that "a company's worth of equipment, enough for about 150 soldiers, would be stored in each of the three Baltic nations: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Enough for a company or possibly a battalion, or about 750 soldiers, would be located in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and possibly Hungary."

Source: Reuters