Castro calls for embargo lift after US normalises relations

The EU praised the warming of relations between the US and Cuba as a “historic turning point” following secret talks lasting more than a year between the Havana and Washington.

After over 50 years of hostility, Cuba’s President Raul Castro has urged the US to drop the trade embargo imposed in the 1960s after Havana adopted Communism in the wake of Cuba’s revolution.

Comparing the thawing of relations to the fall of the Berlin wall 25 years ago, the EU’s foreign policy chief said: “Today another wall has started to fall.”

“These moves represent a victory of dialogue over confrontation.”

Officials said US President Barack Obama and Mr Castro spoke on the phone on Tuesday for nearly an hour, in the first president-level talks between the two countries since Cuba’s 1959 revolution.

In a presidential address on Wednesday, Mr Obama said “neither the American or the Cuban people are well served by a policy that’s rooted in events that took place before many of us were born”.

In a pre-agreed move, Mr Castro made a broadcast at the same time on Cuban TV and radio, praising the deal with the US as “progress”.

Prisoner releases

European governments have been critical of Cuban human rights abuses, but have long implored Washington to follow Europe’s moves to improve relations with Cuba following the end of the cold war and the collapse of its Soviet backer.

The EU lifted diplomatic sanctions on Cuba in 2008 and in April began talks on a co-operation agreement, although Cuba recently put of negotiations that would have covered human rights.

The US and Cuba have agreed several measures to improve ties, including prisoner releases on both sides.

US contractor Alan Gross, 65, was released from Cuban prison in return for three Cubans held in the US.

Mr Gross’s five-year imprisonment had undermined previous attempts to improve US-Cuban relations.

Mr Obama also said the US was looking to open an embassy in Havana in the coming months.

Pope Francis played a crucial role in bringing the two countries together and congratulated Mr Obama and Mr Castro on the improvement in relations.

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said greater US engagement in Cuba in the future should “encourage real and lasting reforms for the Cuban people”.

She added: “The other nations of the Americas should join us in this effort.”