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Cuba, US to open embassies July 20 — Cuban Foreign Ministry

The leaders of the two countries announced their plans to restart diplomatic relations last December

HAVANA, July 1. /TASS/. The United States has confirmed its readiness to restore ties with Cuba and reopen embassies in each other's capitals on July 20, the Cuban Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on its website on Wednesday.

"Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelino Medina Rodriguez, received during today's morning, at the venue of the Chancery, the chief of the United States Interests Section in Havana, Mr. Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who conveyed a letter from president Barack Obama addressed to Army General Raul Castro Ruz, president of the Councils of State and Ministers, confirming the decision to re-establish the diplomatic relations between the two countries and to open permanent diplomatic missions in the respective capitals, beginning July 20th, 2015," the statement said.

The leaders of the two countries announced their plans to restart diplomatic relations last December. Since then, the sides have held several rounds of talks on the re-establishment of embassies.

In recent months, the Obama administration has eased trade restrictions on Cuba, resolved the issue of providing financial services to the Cuban Interests Section, Havana's diplomatic mission in Washington, and removed the island state from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

All these issues were among Cuba’s preconditions for normalizing relations with the US.