美国与古巴清除恢复外交关系的障碍

The United States and Cuba are trying to eliminate obstacles to normalized ties, as the highest-level US delegation to Cuba in 35 years holds a second day of talks with Cuban officials in Havana.

During the session yesterday, the U.S. side brought up the lifting of restrictions on US diplomats in Cuba and assurances that Cubans would have unrestricted access to a future US Embassy in Havana.

The Cuban side is demanding Cuba's removal from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism, which Washington says it is considering.

The two sides also hope to re-establish embassies and appoint ambassadors to each other's capitals in the coming months.

Gustavo Machin, an official from the Cuban Foreign Ministry, spoke highly of the bilateral meeting.

"The meeting has taken place in a respectful and relaxed environment, just look at my face, it reflects the spirit of the meeting."

Officials from the both sides also outlined the gauntlet of traps standing in the way of a US-Cuban relationship.

Top US diplomat for Latin America Roberta Jacobson.

"We have, as our presidents have taken this step, to overcome more than 50 years of a relationship that was not based on confidence or trust, so there are things that we have to discuss before we can establish that relationship and so there will be future conversations."

The talks focused on the broader question of how the U.S. and Cuba can end a half-century of enmity, as promised by Presidents Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro last month.