Making history with a symbolic handshake, President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro are expected to take another step today toward normalizing relations between the Cold War adversaries with a face-to-face meeting in Panama.
Obama and Castro shook hands and spoke briefly during the opening ceremony at the Summit of the Americas in Panama City, an event that includes Cuba for the first time.
Although no formal meeting was scheduled between the leaders, White House officials indicated that a substantive conversation between the two was all but assured hours before Obama is to return to Washington, according to The Associated Press.
The AP writes: "Anticipation of an Obama-Castro meeting has been steadily building throughout this week's Summit of the Americas in Panama City, and reached a fever pitch Friday evening when they traded handshakes and cordial greetings in a prelude of things to come. Not once in more than 50 years have the leaders of Cuba and its northerly neighbor spent quality time together, assuring their expected sit-down on Saturday would be one for the history books."
On Friday, Obama said that "strong nations don't fear active citizens; strong nations embrace and support and empower active citizens."
"As we move toward the process of normalization, we'll have our differences government-to-government with Cuba on many issues, just as we differ at times with other nations within the Americas, just as we differ with our closest allies. There's nothing wrong with that," he Obama. Reuters notes that: "Earlier on Friday, Obama met with opposition activists from across Latin America, including two Cubans, but there was very little media access to the session, curbing publicity of an encounter that could have annoyed Castro's communist government."
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