Havana talks start with Obama promises, Cuban caution

The highest-level United States delegation to Cuba in decades began two days of negotiations starting Wednesday, with grand promises by President Barack Obama about change on the island and a somber warning from Cuba to abandon any hopes of reforming the communist government.

U.S. moves to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba and loosen the five-decade-old trade embargo have "the potential to end a legacy of mistrust in our hemisphere" and have "added up to new hope for the future in Cuba," Obama said in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

A senior Cuban official cautioned, however, that restoring diplomatic ties with the U.S. wouldn't immediately lead to a full relationship between the Cold War foes after a half-century of enmity.

The message appeared designed to lower expectations before the arrival of the U.S. delegation and just before Obama spoke to a Capitol crowd that included Alan Gross, whose release from Cuba in a prisoner exchange last month cleared the way for a new relationship.

Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson will represent the U.S. delegation in Wednesday's conversations, which were expected to start with a continuation of efforts by the two sides in recent years to promote what the State Department calls "safe, legal and orderly migration." The talks are expected to cover everything from the security of charter flights that travel regularly between Miami and Havana to rooting out fraudulent passports and partnering on potential search-and-rescue missions.

Thursday's talks, scheduled to deal with the mechanics of re-establishing a U.S. Embassy in Havana and a Cuban Embassy in Washington, are expected to be trickier. Immediate U.S. objectives include the lifting of restrictions on American diplomats' staffing numbers and travel in Cuba, easier shipments to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana and unfettered access to the building for Cubans.

The U.S. says restoration of full diplomatic ties depends on how quickly the Cubans meet its requests. Jacobson will also meet Cuban activists and civil society representatives.

Cuba is also expected to ask Washington to be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism before restoring diplomatic relations. While saying this removal was not necessarily a condition for restoring ties, the official said the Cubans would press the issue with the U.S. delegation.

"We cannot conceive of re-establishing diplomatic relations while Cuba continues to be included on the list," the senior official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It doesn't make any sense that we re-establish diplomatic relations and Cuba continues [to be included].”

The designation comes with economic sanctions against the countries and can result in fines for companies that do business with them, such as the record $8.9 billion penalty that French bank BNP Paribas paid last year.

In its latest annual country reports on terrorism (PDF), the State Department cited Cuba's support for the Basque separatist group ETA and for Colombia's left-wing FARC guerrillas. But ETA, severely weakened by Spanish and French police, called a cease-fire in 2011 and has pledged to disarm. And FARC has been in peace talks with the Colombian government for the past two years, with Cuba as host.

This week’s meetings come amid growing U.S. support for normalized relations with the island nation. Sixty percent of respondents surveyed in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Tuesday said they approve of Obama’s efforts to restore diplomatic relations with Havana. The approval figures are highest among 18-to-34-year-olds (66 percent) and black and Hispanic voters (65 percent). But even a significant number of Republican voters (41 percent) said they support improved relations.

Republican leaders in the House and Senate are opposed to rapidly rebuilding relations as long as President Raúl Castro remains firmly in control of Cuba. Other obstacles include billions of dollars in economic claims against Cuba's government, U.S. fugitives living freely in Cuba and the opposition of Miami-based Cuban-Americans.

Still, the biggest potential challenge is Castro's government itself, which needs cash for its stagnant economy but fears Obama's new policy merely repackages the long-standing U.S. goal to push Raúl Castro and Fidel Castro from power.

The U.S. and Cuba have not had diplomatic relations since 1961, shortly after Fidel Castro seized power. Interests sections — representative departments usually housed in a third country’s diplomatic mission — were established in the late 1970s as a means of opening a channel between Washington and Havana, but any diplomatic goodwill they generated quickly evaporated.

Some changes have come in the last month. The Cubans last week released 53 political prisoners. Three days later, the Obama administration significantly eased travel and trade rules for Cuba.

Al Jazeera and wire services