U.S. holds high level talks with Cuba today

HAVANA (AP) – A senior Cuban official said Tuesday that restoring diplomatic ties with the United States won’t immediately lead to a full relationship between the Cold War foes after a half-century of enmity.

The message appeared designed to lower expectations a day before the arrival of the highest-level U.S. delegation to Cuba in decades and just before President Barack Obama made his case in the State of the Union Address for seizing the opening with Cuba by ending the U.S. trade embargo of the island. Alan Gross, whose release from Cuba in a prisoner exchange last month cleared the way for a new relationship, sat next to Michelle Obama.

“We are ending a policy that was long past its expiration date,” Obama said. “When what you’re doing doesn’t work for 50 years, it’s time to try something new.”

The Havana talks start Wednesday morning. But the high-ranking Cuban diplomat said Tuesday: “Cuba isn’t normalizing relations with the United States. Cuba is re-establishing diplomatic relations with the U.S. The process of normalization is much longer and deeper.” Reporters were briefed on condition the official not be quoted by name.

The U.S. has taken “steps in the right direction but there’s still far to go,” the official noted. He expressed optimism about the long-term prospects for U.S.-Cuban relations as long as Washington does not try to change Cuba’s single-party government and centrally planned economy – tenets of Cuba’s system the U.S. has long opposed.

American officials have repeatedly said they hope their new path of engagement will empower Cubans and soften the government’s control over the country.

Republican leaders in the House and Senate are opposed to the rapid rebuilding of relations with President Raul Castro still firmly in control of Cuba. Other obstacles include billions of dollars in economic claims against Cuba’s government, American fugitives living freely in Cuba and the opposition of many Cuban-Americans.

Still, the biggest potential challenge is Castro’s government itself, which needs a rapid infusion of cash into its stagnant economy but fears Obama’s new policy merely repackages the longstanding U.S. goal to push him from power.

Leading the U.S. delegation to Havana is Roberta Jacobson, the most senior American official to visit Cuba in 35 years. The rosters on both sides include officials well-known to one another from years of cautious efforts to improve cooperation.