One bitter holdover of the Cold War slipped into the history books on Monday, when the United States and Cuba re-established diplomatic relations. For the first time since severing ties in 1961, they reopened embassies in each other’s capitals. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla traveled to the Cuban Embassy in Washington to raise his country’s flag, an event that Cuban government officials said would be broadcast live on the island’s state-run TV. A Cuban delegation of diplomats, artists and veterans of the revolution commemorated the breakthrough with about 500 guests and more than likely down a few celebratory mojitos and shots of Havana Club rum.U.S. diplomats in Havana have readied everything from new business cards to the embassy sign. But the festivities and flag-raising will have to wait for Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit — the highest-level trip by a U.S. official to Cuba since the 1959 revolution — for the embassy reopening ceremony in August. A half-century of animosity and mistrust is not going to be replaced by sweetness and light in the near future, and both sides acknowledge that there is years of rebuilding and reshaping ahead, but the outcomes are a win-win for both countries and the Caribbean region as a whole. Recent years have seen a quiet improvement in relations, with fewer provocations by either side and Americans are going to be able to smoke the much-sought-after Cuban cigars legally rather than otherwise. But it is more than the cheap ‘cigar’ headline. It is about trade, a mutual interest in combating the international drugs trade and promoting tourism — Americans want to see time-warped Cuba and its 1950s cars and taxis before they, too, disappear into the pages of history. For President Obama, there will be quiet satisfaction at a success abroad unlike that he has achieved at home, where America is as polarised as it ever was. Cuba has finally come in out of the cold.
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