Raúl Castro

Cuban President Raul Castro and his US counterpart Barack Obama had an hour’s worth of talk during the “VII Cumbre De Las Americas”, held in Panama.

The face-to-face meeting between the two leaders, which is the first to take place since 1956, came to seal the two countries’ willingness to participate in negotiations, after half a century of hostility.

Barack Obama and Raul Castro held the first face-to-face talks between US and Cuban leaders since 1956 in Panama on April 11, vowing to pursue their historic effort to bury Cold War-era enmity.

US President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro had a historic handshake on Friday as they arrived at the Summit of the Americas, which is taking place in Panama City.

Their gesture has been another important step in the thaw of relations between the two countries, which have been at odds in the past five decades.

As Latin American leaders applaud a historic thawing of animosity between the United States and Cuba, U.S. President Barack Obama will meet Raul Castro for talks on April 11 that could further boost his reputation in the region. 

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Cuba's foreign minister made progress as they held historic talks April 9 to restore diplomatic ties, a US official said before their presidents attend a landmark summit.

Tourism to Cuba was up 16 percent in January from the previous year, following the historic rapprochement between the communist island and the United States, officials said on March 9.
      

US and Cuban negotiators launch a second round of historic talks on Feb. 27 aimed at overcoming half a century of enmity and restoring full diplomatic ties.
      
After an initial meeting in Havana in January which ended with little apparent breakthrough, the teams were to meet at the State Department -- the hub of US global diplomacy.
      

Cuban state media late Feb. 2 released the first photographs of former president Fidel Castro in nearly six months in a bid to quiet rumors that his health is failing.
 

Fidel Castro does not "trust the US, nor have I spoken with them," the revolutionary icon, 88, said in a letter attributed to him and read out on state television on Jan. 26.

Cuban officials sat down Jan. 22 with the highest-level US delegation to visit Havana in 35 years for landmark talks on reopening embassies and thawing long frozen ties.