Saturday, April 11, 2015

Obama set to test engagement doctrine with Cuba in Panama

Obama set to test engagement doctrine with Cuba in Panama
Kevin Liptak, CNN White House producer
Updated 1129 GMT (1829 HKT) April 9, 2015

Washington (CNN)Emboldened after striking a preliminary nuclear deal
with Iran, President Barack Obama heads to a gathering of South and
Central American leaders this week prepared to test his doctrine of
engaging sworn U.S. enemies, this time Cuba.

After a brief stopover in Jamaica Wednesday to meet with Caribbean
leaders, Obama heads to the Summit of the Americas in Panama, where
officials say he plans to "interact" with Cuba's President Raul Castro
following his decision to improve relations between the two countries.

Castro is attending the gathering for the first time after Cuba was
drummed out of the Organization of American States more than half a
century ago.

Unlike past summits, when the United States' stance on Cuba was a major
point of contention, White House officials expect the realignment to be
hailed at the two-day event, during which Obama also plans to tour the
Panama Canal and seek to ramp up commerce with Latin America.

Obama and Castro aren't scheduled to meet formally this week, but
Obama's aides have hinted at a set agenda for whatever conversation
emerges when they encounter one another on the sidelines of the conference.

RELATED: Obama, Cuban president to 'interact' at Panama meeting

That includes finalizing plans to reopen embassies in Havana and
Washington and continuing to bolster commercial ties between the
neighbors, which began to form after Obama lifted long-standing
restrictions on commerce and travel last year.

It's also likely to center on Obama's decision to remove Cuba from the
U.S. list of state sponsors of terror, a commitment officials say he'll
make this week after receiving a recommendation on the matter from the
State Department. The State Department recommended removing Cuba from
the list.

Cuba has raised the designation as a major objection in its talks with
U.S. officials regarding normalizing relations between the two Cold War
adversaries.

Obama, in an interview with NPR this week, signaled his predilection for
removing Cuba's terror status.

"The criteria is very straightforward: 'Is this particular country
considered a state sponsor of terrorism,' not, 'do we agree with them on
everything,'" he said. "Those standards, those criteria are the ones
that are going to be measured against the current activities of the
Cuban government."

Obama and Castro, who spoke on the phone after the U.S. announced in
December it was seeking to thaw frozen relations between the two
countries, last interacted in person at Nelson Mandela's funeral in 2013
when they shook hands spontaneously.

Analysts predict their interaction this time around will be more
substantive — though not yet exactly chummy.

"I don't think there will be lots of hugs and kisses," said Ted Piccone,
a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution Latin America Initiative.
"I think it will be serious and it will be respectful and measured, and
they will reinforce the larger theme...that dialogue and engagement is
better for constructive relations than negative sanctions."

Since the handshake in South Africa, officials in both countries have
worked to ease the decades of U.S.-Cuba enmity, culminating in the
announcement late last year that diplomatic relations were reopening.
Some in Cuba have lamented the pace of the thaw, though Obama's aides
argue the high stakes mandate careful deliberation.

RELATED: Fidel Castro, in rare public appearance, is 'full of vitality'

"When you have two countries that haven't really spoken to each other
like this in over 50 years, you have a lot of issues to work through,"
Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said, noting that
talks to reopen embassies weren't likely to be complete by this week's
summit — originally an administration goal.

Officials insist they're otherwise pleased at the progress toward
reestablishing diplomatic ties, which the White House argues has helped
improve relations with other countries in the region.

"We felt it was long overdue and takes a huge irritant out of our policy
in Latin America and the Caribbean," said Roberta Jacobson, the
Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs who's led
talks with Cuba reestablishing diplomatic ties.

The summit meetings Friday and Saturday will mark the first time Cuba
participates in the conference, which takes place every three years. At
the two Obama previously attended, in Trinidad and Colombia, reception
toward the U.S. delegation was icy.

RELATED: Cuba talks continue, terror list a sticking point

"It was really painful to see how isolated (Obama) was, what a punching
bag he was. I think that atmosphere will be very different now three
years later," said Richard Feinberg, who handled inter-American affairs
in President Clinton's National Security Council and is now a professor
of international political economy at the University of California, San
Diego.

While Cuba may help smooth U.S. overtures to Latin America, a more
aggressive stance against Venezuela could prove troublesome for Obama.
In March the White House announced it was expanding sanctions on certain
Venezuelan officials for human rights abuses following political unrest.

The country's president Nicolas Maduro planned to present Obama with
petitions signed by millions of his countrymen protesting the executive
order, which declared Venezuela a "national security threat."

U.S. officials insist the language in the sanctions order was pro forma
and that Venezuela doesn't pose a threat to U.S. security. But they
acknowledge agitation over the sanctions in the region will arise during
the summit.

"It will certainly be an issue," Rhodes said. "But again, what we'll be
making clear here is that we stand up for a set of universal values
everywhere."

Like negotiating with Iran, renewing ties with Cuba sparked outrage from
some lawmakers, who argued it was a misguided effort to engage a corrupt
government. But Obama, in an interview with the New York Times this
week, argued there were few risks of pursing a better relationship with
Cuba.

"For us to test the possibility that engagement leads to a better
outcome for the Cuban people, there aren't that many risks for us," he
said. "It's a tiny little country. It's not one that threatens our core
security interests, and so for us to test the proposition and if it
turns out that it doesn't lead to better outcomes, we can adjust our
policies."

Source: Obama set to test engagement doctrine with Cuba - CNN.com -
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/09/politics/obama-panama-trip-cuba-castro-relations/

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