US, Cuba set for historic talks in Havana to normalise ties

HAVANA,19 Jan (AFP) The United States and Cuba will hold their highest-level talks in decades on Wednesday, ditching decades of Cold War-era hostility to pave the way to reopen embassies and normalise ties.

Senior US and Cuban officials will meet over two days in Havana to discuss immigration issues and a roadmap to return ambassadors to each other’s nation, more than half a century after full diplomatic relations broke off in 1961.
The talks in the Cuban capital come five weeks after US President Barack Obama and Cuban counterpart Raul Castro simultaneously made the momentous announcement that their countries would seek to normalize ties. Ms Roberta Jacobson, the US assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, will head the American delegation, while the Cubans will be represented by the Foreign Ministry’s director for US affairs Josefina Vidal