Obama and Castro to 'interact' at Americas summit

"Obama and Castro to 'interact' at Americas summit"

Washington, Apr 4 (AFP) US President Barack Obama and Cuban counterpart
Raul Castro will have an "interaction" when they attend next week's
Summit of the Americas in Panama, a US official has said.

It will be the first between the two leaders since the historic
rapprochement between Havana and Washington.

"Clearly President Obama knew when he made the decision to go to the
summit, and he knew that Cuba had been invited to the summit... that
there would be an interaction," US State Department official Roberta
Jacobson said at the Brookings Institution yesterday.

"The leaders are together a lot of the time. And so there will be an
interaction with Raul Castro," she added, declining to speculate about
the nature of any possible meeting between the two leaders.

But she added Obama's only confirmed meeting was with Panama leader Juan
Carlos Varela.

"None of the president's meetings are scheduled other than his bilateral
with President Varela as the host," she said.

"So I don't know exactly what kind of an interaction that will be. But
they've obviously already spoken on the phone...

and there's been a lot of interaction since then at a lower level."

In separate remarks, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf expressed
scepticism that the thaw in US-Cuba relations may lead to the opening of
embassies in Havana and Washington before next week's summit, which
takes place on April 10-11.

Asked to give an assessment of the likelihood of embassies being opened
before the summit, Harf replied: "It's not a lot of time, let's put it
that way."

The United States and Cuba have already held three rounds of talks since
January on restoration of diplomatic relations and the reopening of
their embassies.

Washington had initially targeted a reopening of the embassies in time
for the Summit of the Americas.

Source: fullstory -
http://www.ptinews.com/news/5878836_-Obama-and-Castro-to--interact--at-Americas-summit--.html