US President Barack Obama says he does not expect the reopening of diplomatic relations with Cuba to bring overnight change to the nation, a quick end to the US economic embargo or the likelihood that he will soon visit the communist nation.
“This is still a regime that represses its people,” Obama said on Friday at a year-end news conference, two days after the historic announcement that he was moving to end the half century of Cold War acrimony with Havana.
He said he hopes to visit Cuba at some point in his life, but that he is not at the stage yet of going or hosting Cuban President Raul Castro in Washington.
Instead, Obama said the change in policy should give the US a greater opportunity to have influence on Cuba and reflects his belief that 50 years of isolation have not worked.
“We will be in a position to respond to whatever action they take the same way we do with a whole range of countries around the world when they do things that we think are wrong,” Obama said.
He said the four-decade-old embargo should end, but he did not anticipate it soon. Lifting the embargo must be done by the US Congress and Obama said it will likely be a while before US lawmakers take up that debate.
Obama said former Cuban president Fidel Castro’s name came up only briefly in his telephone call this week with Castro’s brother and successor, Raul Castro. Obama said he opened the call with about 15 minutes of an opening statement, then apologized for talking so long.
Obama said the Cuban president responded: “You’re still a young man and you still have a chance to break Fidel’s record. He once spoke for seven hours straight.”
Obama said Raul Castro then delivered an opening statement at least twice as long as his.
“I was able to say it runs in the family,” Obama said.
Cuba was one of many issues that Obama addressed concerning a year he saw as basically positive, despite a series of foreign policy crises and major defeats for his Democratic party in midterm elections.
In fact, Obama declared it as “a breakthrough year for America,” putting aside the fits and starts of the past 12 months to focus on achievements and the prospect of compromise with his political foes who are taking control of Congress.
The news conference came at the end of what Obama titled his “Year of Action,” one in which Congress failed to take up most of his agendas and he turned to looking for ways to act on his own, most recently on immigration.
Republicans cried foul at that tactic, accusing Obama of overstepping his authority.
On Friday, the US president acknowledged many unanticipated crises in the past year, but said he enters next year with renewed confidence that “America is making strides where it counts.”
He ticked off the year’s improvements, citing lower unemployment and a rising number of Americans covered by health insurance. On climate change, the touted his own executive action and a Chinese agreement to combat global warming. And he said the US’ combat mission in Afghanistan would soon be over.
“Take any metric that you want, America’s resurgence is real. We are better off,” said Obama, who spoke before leaving for a vacation in Hawaii.
He is to return to Washington with both congressional chambers under Republican control — a first since he has been in the White House — and attention turning to the 2016 race to replace him.
While much of his agendas are expected to face a dead end on Capitol Hill, Obama aides say he will look for areas of compromise on issues like trade and taxes, and continue to act on his own where he can.
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