Obama pledges "new beginning" with Cuba as Summit of the Americas opens in T&T

President Barack Obama told the opening session of the fifth summit of the Americas in Port of Spain Friday evening the United States is seeking a "new beginning with Cuba."

He said the Washington is ready to engage the Cuban government in dialogue but would not simply talk for the sake of talking. The president said he wants to talk with Cuban leaders about human rights, democratic reform and economic issues. "I do believe that we can move U.S.-Cuban relations in a new direction,'' the president said.

On Monday the Obama administration announced that it is easing restrictions on travel and finances to Cuba and permitting American telecommunications companies to apply for licences to service Cuba. But he was clear that ending the 47-year old trade embargo is not yet an immediate option.

Havana has indicated that it is willing to talk, although it believes the gesture from Washington is not adequate. President Raul Castro has said Cuba is open to talks with Obama on "everything", including his key demands about human rights, press freedom and political prisoners.

Related story from AFP: U.S. Welcomes 'overture' from Cuba's Raul Castro

Cuba is barred from attending the summit because it doesn't meet the criteria for membership in the grouping, which comprises 34 democratically elected leaders of the Americas.

"I know there is a longer journey that must be travelled in overcoming decades of mistrust, but there are critical steps we can take toward a new day," Obama told the leaders.

The U.S. president also met and shook hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. A statement from the Venezuelan president's press office said Chavez told Obama "I want to be your friend".
Chavez, who is a fierce critic of Washington, has said he would not sign the summit declaration as a symbolic protest against the United States.

The populist Venezuelan leader has been highly critical of the structure of the grouping of Western hemisphere leaders who are all members of the Organization of American States (OAS). Earlier in the week he said there is need for a new kind of structure to ensure that the dominance and influence of the United States is reduced. He wants an equal partnership among members.

Obama addressed that issue in his speech in Port of Spain, declaring that he is seeking an "equal partnership" with Latin American states during his administration.

Many of the 34 leaders attending the summit, including host Patrick Manning, see Cuba as a priority and argue that the U.S. policy on Cuba is obsolete and has helped to isolate the U.S. in the region.

On Friday, before flying to Port of Spain, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted that U.S. policy on Cuba has failed and welcomed Castro's overture for wide-ranging talks.

On Thursday, Bolivian President Evo Morales repeated a call made last year for the United States to end its Cuba trade embargo. He plans ask the summit to adopt the Bolivian Alternative for the Peoples of our America (ALBA) and seek an end to the US embargo.

He said Obama has a "moral and ethical obligation" to comply.

ALBA was founded in 2004 by Venezuela and Cuba to counter the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) that the United States and several Latin American nations were proposing at the time.

In his address to the meeting Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad & Tobago appealed for the reintegration of Cuba and an end to the trade embargo.

“All of us would like to see a proper reintegration of Cuba into institutions of the western hemisphere,” Manning said. And he welcomed the U.S. announcements on relexing restrictions on Cuba as “cause for great optimism.”

He cautioned leaders about allowing any one issue to dominate the deliberations.

“It will be a tragedy if we allow any one issue to be a great source of discord and it will be an error of existential proportions, if we are not able to conduct our business on the basis of cordiality and mutual respect,” he said. “Let it not be said of us that we failed our people in their hour of need because we lacked the maturity and good sense to conduct our business in a rational and objective manner.”