US-Cuba relations still face many challenges

The United States and Cuba reopened their embassies in each other's capitals on July 20 after 54 years, marking the official restoration of their diplomatic ties. The diplomatic rapprochement began with a milestone meeting between US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro on Dec 17, 2014, but full normalization of US-Cuba ties is unlikely to happen any time soon.

The process of fully normalizing bilateral relations will face tougher challenges from all directions and will depend on the length to which the two sides can go to realize it. If they succeed, it will make a world of difference to them as well as US-Latin America ties.

To begin with, Washington and Havana are yet to agree on how to fully normalize overall ties - Cuba believes they have completed only the first stage. Therefore, they still have a long way to go to deal with historical issues, including the US' not-so-successful isolation policy and trade restrictions on Cuba, and the dispute over the return to Cuba of Guantanamo Bay, which now serves as a US naval base and houses a notorious detention center.