Just after a day of clashing with Putin, President Obama met with Raul Castro – the Cuban President.
It was clear that Obama was pleased to meet him as he was all smiles when they sat down to talk. Of course, there were a number of contentious issues that they spoke about and weren’t seeing eye-to-eye about.
This meeting is the latest development and which indicates a restoration of this diplomatic relationship between Cuba and the United States.
It was also the first time a Cuban president met the United States president in over 60 years. Of course, it was also the first time a Cuban president visited the United Nations since 2000.
Before they sat down to discuss matters, both presidents stood for a photo-op that lasted for a minute. This was almost three times longer than the handshake that Obama shared with Putin on an earlier day.
Castro joked that was taller than him but soon got to discussing the ongoing trade embargo that was imposed by the United Nations.
While Obama has already revealed in a speech to the UN that the embargo will be lifted by Congress, they aren’t doing the same with the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base even if Cuba wants it back.
Even though Bruno Rodriguez has asked Obama to use his executive powers to undo the embargo, this can be undone by U.S Congress. Of course, they are not willing to do this not until Cuba itself makes some political changes of their own.
Apart from this, Obama also addressed a panel at the United Nations whose focus was on countering terrorism and ISIS in particular. He described this as a “long-term campaign — not only against this particular network, but against its ideology”.