CUBA-USA/EMBASSY-SCENE Dignitaries, officials begin arriving for flag-raising ceremony at U.S. embassy

Record ID: 143910

  • Title: CUBA-USA/EMBASSY-SCENE Dignitaries, officials begin arriving for flag-raising ceremony at U.S. embassy
  • Date: 14th August 2015
  • Summary: SWISS FOREIGN MINISTER, DIDIER BURKHALTER, ARRIVING AT U.S. EMBASSY FOR CEREMONY
  • Embargoed: 29th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABV2HOTYB0PCPDTSP87BV87GOS
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: American officials and international dignitaries arrived at the United States Embassy in Havana on Friday (August 14) ahead of a historic flag-raising ceremony presided over by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to mark the restoration of ties between the former Cold War foes.
    Washington severed diplomatic ties with Havana as relations soured soon after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. As a result, the seven-story seafront American embassy building in Havana was closed from 1961 until 1977, when it reopened as an interests section.
    Former Chief of Mission for the U.S. Interest Section in Havana, Wayne Smith, and Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter arrived at the embassy site for the event.
    Kerry, the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Cuba in 70 years, will be accompanied by aides, members of Congress and three U.S. Marines who last lowered the flag there in January 1961.
    Following an announcement between Cuban President Raul Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama last December to restore diplomatic ties, both nations have reopened embassies and are working to normalise relations amidst high hopes for an end to the American embargo on Cuba.
    Cuba wants the United States to end the embargo, return the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in eastern Cuba, and halt radio and television signals beamed into Cuba.
    The Americans are expected to press Cuba on human rights, the return of fugitives granted asylum and the claims of Americans whose property was nationalized after Fidel Castro came to power.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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