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Obama, Castro hold ‘candid’ historic meeting

US President Barack Obama and Cuba's President Raul Castro reach out to shake hands during a meeting on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas at the ATLAPA Convention Center on April 11, 2015 in Panama City/AFP

US President Barack Obama and Cuba’s President Raul Castro reach out to shake hands during a meeting on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas at the ATLAPA Convention Center on April 11, 2015 in Panama City/AFP

PANAMA CITY, Panama, Apr 12 – Barack Obama and Raul Castro held the first face-to-face talks between US and Cuban leaders since 1956 in Panama on Saturday, vowing to pursue their historic effort to bury Cold War-era enmity.

Sitting together in a blue-carpeted room, Obama thanked Castro for his “spirit of openness and courtesy” during their interactions, while the communist leader stressed that the negotiations will require patience.

Obama also sought to calm tensions with another leftist nation and a Cuban ally, speaking briefly with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for the first time, telling him Washington did not seek to threaten Caracas.

The Obama-Castro meeting, which lasted more than an hour, was the climax of their surprise announcement on December 17 that, after a year and a half of secret negotiations, they would seek to normalize relations that broke off in 1961.

“This is obviously a historic meeting,” said Obama, who spoke first after they sat down in polished, wooden chairs for their talks on the sidelines of the 35-nation Summit of the Americas in Panama City.

?”We are now in a position to move on a path toward the future,” he said, adding that the immediate task was to reopen embassies.

Castro, 83, broke into a smile when Obama acknowledged that the two sides will continue to have differences on human rights and other issues.

After Obama spoke, the two men stood up and shook hands.

Saying he agreed with everything Obama said, Castro acknowledged that the two governments can still have differences but “with respect of the ideas of the others.”

“We are willing to discuss everything but we need to be patient, very patient,” he said.

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“We already expressed to some American friends in other occasions that we are willing to talk about everything.”

When Castro said he hoped the US and Cuban delegations will listen to their presidents’ instructions, Obama laughed.

The two leaders, who had spoken on the phone in December and on Wednesday, shook hands again and reporters were ushered away for a closed-door discussion.

Obama told reporters later that the conversation was “candid and fruitful” and that he did not shy away from telling Castro that Washington would keep airing concerns about democracy and human rights.

They both had already made conciliatory speeches moments earlier during the summit, sitting at an oval table with some 30 other regional leaders.

Addressing the leaders next, Castro declared: “President Obama is an honest man.”

Such words would have been unimaginable in the days that his brother, Fidel Castro, was at the helm from 1959 until an illness sidelined him in 2006.

Raul Castro was the first Cuban leader to attend the summit in its 21-year history.

US-Cuban tensions have vexed Washington’s relations with the region for decades.

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“This shift in US policy represents a turning point for our entire region,” Obama told the summit.

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