Among the first milestones in international politics for 2015, the US-Cuba talks that took place in Havana yesterday signal the end of 50 years of diplomatic permafrost that stultified their relationship. Representatives of the two governments sat down and cautiously penned the first chapter in their newly-recombined political narrative, which included the reopening of their mutual embassies. While US President Barack Obama has reversed what was one of the most vexing international standoffs that materialised in 1961, seven months before he was born, it is still early days to know the full scope of this historic rapprochement. There are many contentious issues that need attention — influx of Cubans into the US, mutually incompatible political ideologies and at the heart of the reengagement, the issue of economic sanctions.
Even if the US Congress agrees to lift the sanctions and US investment in Cuba flows in, the truth is that Cuba, with its rigid political system, is in no shape right now to optimise those benefits. The way forward for both is defined more by gradualism than dramatic recompensation for the past.
