SECRETARY KERRY: Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for your patience. InWashington a few moments ago, President Obama announced that we had reached anagreement to formally re-establish diplomatic relations with the Republic of Cuba and that wewill reopen embassies in our respective countries.
Later this summer, as the President announced, I will travel to Cuba to personally take part inthe formal reopening of our United States Embassy in Havana. This will mark the resumption ofembassy operations after a period of 54 years. It will also be the first visit by a Secretary ofState to Cuba since 1945. The reopening of our embassy, I will tell you, is an important step onthe road to restoring fully normal relations between the United States and Cuba. Coming aquarter of a century after the end of the Cold War, it recognizes the reality of the changedcircumstances, and it will serve to meet a number of practical needs.
The United States and Cuba continue to have sharp differences over democracy, human rights,and related issues, but we also have identified areas for cooperation that include lawenforcement, safe transportation, emergency response, environmental protection,telecommunications, and migration. The resumption of full embassy activities will help usengage the Cuban Government more often and at a higher level, and it will also allow ourdiplomats to interact more frequently, and frankly more broadly and effectively, with theCuban people. In addition, we will better be able to assist Americans who travel to the islandnation in order to visit family members or for other purposes.
This transition, this moment in history, is taking place because President Obama made apersonal, fundamental decision to change a policy that didn't work and that had been inplace not working for far too long. I believe that's leadership, and I appreciate that leadership.And President Castro felt similarly that it was time for a change. Both leaders agree thatconcentrating on the issues and possibilities of the future is far more productive thanremaining mired in the past. And I would say as we look at the world today with conflicts thatwe see and even these negotiations taking place here in Vienna, it is important for people tounderstand that things can change, that leadership can be effective and can make adifference.
This step has been long overdue, and the response of the international community hasreflected the relief and the welcoming that people all over the world feel for this step. This stepwill advance the President's vision – President Obama's vision – of an Americas whereresponsibilities are widely shared and where countries combine their strengths to advancecommon interests and values. And we, frankly, also believe that this opening will help to changerelationships in the region as a whole.
I want to thank Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson and her team, our team at theState Department, together with those at the White House who have worked to lead thesediscussions with their Cuban counterparts in order to enable the normalization of ourdiplomatic relations and the reopening of our embassies. I also want to thank the Governmentof Switzerland for the essential role that they have played in serving as the United Statesprotecting power in Cuba for more than 50 years.
And finally, I want to acknowledge the efforts of many in the United States Congress, theCuban American community, civil society, faith-based organizations, the private sector, andothers throughout our country and beyond who have supported the start of a new chapter ofrelations between the United States and Cuba. I look forward to meeting again with my Cubancounterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, who I saw most recently in Panama, and I also look forward togreeting our embassy personnel and the Cuban people in Havana later this summer. I lookforward to taking part in the reopening of our United States embassy and in the raising of theStars and Stripes over that embassy, and the beginning of a new era of a new relationship withthe people of Cuba. Thank you all very much.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, will American diplomats have free access to talk to people –
SECRETARY KERRY: We'll talk about all those details later. I'm not going to take questionsright now, folks, but I appreciate very much your patience and interest.
QUESTION: Just a few words about the negotiations here today, please.
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, I've got to take these away for that. (Laughter.) We are workingvery, very hard. We have some very difficult issues, but we believe we're making progress andwe're going to continue to work because of that. Thank you all.
QUESTION: Foreign Minister Zarif said there's no deadline. Is there?
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you very much.
QUESTION: Is there a deadline, sir?
SECRETARY KERRY: We have our own sense of deadline.