美国与古巴关系缓和?

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President Obama on his way to Trinidad and Tobago now to attend the Summit of the Americas. The only nation from that region not invited is Cuba. But all of a sudden, there could be a thaw in the relations between the US and Cuba.  President Raul Castro of Cuba now says Havana is open to talks with Washington about everything, including political prisoners, human rights and freedom of the press. Our Mike Emanuel is live at the White House for us right now. So what is the president's message, Mike?

Oh, Jon. President Obama says the relationship that's been frozen for basically fifty years is not going to change instantly, but he did send this signal to Cuba.

"We don’t expect them to change overnight. That would be unrealistic. But we do expect that Cuba will send signals that they’re interested in liberalizing in such a way that not only do US-Cuban relations improve, but so that the energy and creativity and initiative of the Cuban people can potentially be released."

So the president's calling on the government in Cuba basically to show it’s going to respect the rights of its people, Jon.

Any response from Raul Castro?

Well, it’s interesting, Raul Castro has basically said that everything is on the table, that he is ready to come talk to the United States about normalizing relations. He is basically saying any issues the US has had with Cuba in the past, they’re willing to talk about. We will see if this leads to actual action now.

But this has to be a pretty tricky line, I guess, for the Obama administration to walk here.

Well, you’re absolutely right. Because if you go to a place like Miami, there are many Cuban-Americans who feel like the Castro brothers have put their families through hell over the past fifty years, so they’re gonna have very strong opinions about how the US approaches relations with the Castro regime still in power.

Glossary [only for reference]

all of a sudden: suddenly

thaw [countable]: an improvement in relations between two countries, after a period of unfriendliness

liberalize [transitive]: to make a system, laws, or moral attitudes less strict

initiative [uncountable]: the ability to make decisions and take action without waiting for someone to tell you what to do

basically [sentence adverb]: spoken used to emphasize the most important reason or fact about something, or a simple explanation of something

normalize [intransitive and transitive]: if two countries normalize relations, or if relations normalize, the two countries behave in a normal way towards each other again

tricky [adjective]: something that is difficult to deal with or do because it is complicated and full of problems

line [singular]: an opinion or attitude, especially one that someone states publicly and that influences their actions

put somebody through hell: to make someone suffer 

approach [transitive]: to begin to deal with a situation or problem in a particular way or with a particular attitude

regime [countable]: a government, especially one that was not elected fairly or that you disapprove of for some other reason