Obama, Castro Shake Hands at Americas Summit in Panama City - Reports

  11 April 2015    Read: 1201
Obama, Castro Shake Hands at Americas Summit in Panama City - Reports
US President Obama and Cuban President Castro greeted each other and shook hands at the Seventh Summit of the Americas.
US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro have greeted each other at the Seventh Summit of the Americas taking place in Panama City, in a sign of warming US-Cuba relations, Reuters reports.

"At the Summit of the Americas this evening, President Obama and President Castro greeted each other and shook hands," National Security Council Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said on Friday, as quoted by Reuters, which also reported that the pair did not have a substantive conversation, according to an anonymous White House official.

Obama spoke with Castro over the phone on Wednesday prior to leaving for the Seventh Summit of the Americas, which is taking place in Panama on April 10-11. The two are expected to meet on Saturday.

On December 17, 2014, US President Barack Obama announced the official normalization of relations with Cuba, including the restoration of diplomatic relations, the lifting of financial, trade and visa restrictions, and the forthcoming decision to exclude Cuba from the list of sponsors of terrorism.

The Summit of the Americas is a gathering of countries from the Western Hemisphere in which policy solutions to urgent regional challenges are addressed.

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