Date set for highest-level US-Cuba talks in decades

The highest-level U.S. delegation to visit Cuba in decades will arrive in Havana for talks on migration and normalizing ties later this month, the State Department confirmed Thursday.

Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson, America's top diplomat for Latin America, will lead the United State delegation traveling to the island on Jan. 21-22.

The visit comes after Washington last month announced that it would end decades of estrangement and normalize relations with Cuba. It also signaled an easing to the embargo on communist country, with the White House acknowledging that the policy had failed.

Cuba's nascent private sector is bracing for an influx of visitors should the U.S. embargo ease, but many businesses in appear unprepared for a torrent of visitors.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki says the talks later this month will focus on how to "create safe, legal and orderly migration between the United States and Cuba."

But they also seek to advance the process initiated by presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro last month to re-establish U.S.-Cuban relations after more than 50 years of estrangement.

The last U.S.-Cuba migration meeting occurred in Washington in July 2014.

Wire services