Cuban President Raul Castro has said that United States and Cuba should be respectful of each other’s difference and called for “civilised relations” between the two states.
In a closing session of the Cuban Parliament at the capital Havana, Castro said that US needs to let go of its demands of regime change in the communist Cuba in order to allow both the countries to improve their relations.
Castro said that officials from Cuba and USA have met on several occasion over the last year to discuss the matter of immigration and re-establishment of a postal service. He said that these meeting reflect that relations can be civilised.
But he warned, “If we really want to make progress in bilateral relations, we have to learn to respect each other’s differences and get used to living peacefully with them. Otherwise, no. We are ready for another 55 years like the last.”
“We do not ask the United States to change its political and social system, nor do we agree to negotiate over ours,” he added.
Castro’s remarks follow a public handshake with President Obama at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in South Africa earlier this month.
US-Cuban relations were broken off in 1961 after the communist revolution. USA maintains a trade embargo against the Cuba ever since.