Senator: Next round of US-Cuba talks next week
Source: Associated Press
Senator: Next round of US-Cuba talks next week
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, Associated Press | February 17, 2015 | Updated: February 17, 2015 5:03pm
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Photo By Desmond Boylan/AP
Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota speaks during a press conference with fellow senators Claire McCaskill
of Missouri, left, and Mark Warner of Virginia in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015. The delegation is in
Cuba in support of a bill Klobuchar is sponsoring to lift the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. According to the
senators, a new round of negotiations to restore full diplomatic ties with Cuba will take place next week in
Washington.
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HAVANA (AP) — A new round of negotiations to restore full diplomatic ties with Cuba will take place next week in Washington and a delegation of U.S. senators said Tuesday they were hopeful the two sides would reach a deal soon.
Mark Warner of Virginia, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota made their first trip to Cuba over the weekend in support of a bill Klobuchar is sponsoring to lift the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba.
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"We look with hope and expectations to the meetings next week in Washington between the Cuban government and the American State Department to make progress," Warner told reporters in Havana on Tuesday.
He did not say if he expected the pending issues to all be resolved in the coming round of talks but told a large group of reporters, most from Cuban state media, that diplomats often moved more slowly than politicians want. The next three to six months are a key window for progress in the normalization of ties between Cuba and the U.S., he said.
"Frankly I'm optimistic because the negotiators are two women and we know how to get things done," McCaskill said.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Senator-Next-round-of-US-Cuba-talks-next-week-6084995.php