This article was updated on 21 Apr 2020.

The relationship between the U.s.a. and Republic of cuba has evolved dramatically over the past decades. Here we capture some recent milestones.

16 April 2021

Raul Castro resigns as Communist master, ending an era in Cuba that began with his brother Fidel and the country's 1959 revolution. The 89-year-one-time said he was retiring with the sense of having "fulfilled his mission and confident in the future of the fatherland".

It'southward not however clear what result the leader's retirement will have on Cuba-US relations and the restrictions put in place by onetime White House occupant Donald Trump. President Joe Biden has recently said that Republic of cuba policy is "non a top priority".

16 June 2017

Donald Trump announces a fractional rollback on the understanding signed between Barack Obama and Cuban president Raul Castro fifteen months earlier.

The new policy bans virtually US business transactions with the Military machine Business concern Enterprises Grouping, a Cuban entity involved in all sectors of the economy. However, it exempts air and ocean travel, assuasive United states of america airlines and cruise lines to go along serving the island.

The Trump assistants's amendments also tighten rules around The states citizens travelling to Cuba. They will now only exist immune to travel as office of an organised group, for specific purposes such as educational, professional person or humanitarian.

21 March 2016
Barack Obama became the start U.s. president to ready foot on Cuban soil in 88 years. "Que bolá Cuba," he wrote on Twitter, using an informal Cuban greeting. "Simply touched down here, looking forrad to coming together and hearing directly from the Cuban people."

The visit, which includes talks with President Raul Castro, marks the end of a half-century of estrangement between Northward America and Cuba, and a three-year effort by Washington to restore diplomatic ties with the island.

18 February 2016
The White House appear that President Barack Obama will visit Cuba in March. He will be the first American president in 90 years to step on Cuban soil. The globe leader took to Twitter to announce this milestone in US strange policy.

19 September 2015
When Pope Francis arrived in Republic of cuba for the beginning time, he could wait back on a renewal of diplomatic relations betwixt the two countries that he helped to broker.

The Pope told a welcoming anniversary in Havana that the normalization of relations betwixt the Caribbean area nation and the US had filled him with promise. "Information technology is a sign of the victory of the culture of come across and dialogue, the system of universal growth over the forever-dead system of groups and dynasties. I urge political leaders to persevere on this path and to develop all its potentialities as a proof of the high service which they are called to carry out on behalf of the peace and well-existence of their peoples, of all America, and as an example of reconciliation for the entire world."

17 December 2014
The Obama assistants appear its intention to ease sanctions against the Caribbean island – laying the groundwork for the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two nations. This was confirmed during the Height of the Americas, held in Panama in April 2015, where Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro shook hands, marking the starting time official meeting betwixt the two heads of country.

Cuba's Minister of Finance, Lina Pedraza Rodríguez, addressed the thawing of the relationship while participating at the Globe Economic Forum on Latin America in United mexican states in May.

20 July 2015
Republic of cuba and the United States resumed diplomatic relations after 54 years by reopening embassies – a signal of their willingness for cooperation later on a tumultuous relationship. However, there are still many hurdles that demand to be cleared for full normalization between the two nations. Congress would need to repeal the trade embargo in order to allow nearly exports, imports and investment across the Florida Strait, and the differences between the 2 governments makes it clear that there however a long road ahead afterward decades of mistrust.

14 Baronial 2015
In a celebrated moment between the US and Republic of cuba, Secretary of State John Kerry raised the American flag over the recently restored American embassy in Havana. Although the economic embargo legally remains, this is another of import step toward normalizing diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Kerry said at the State Section every bit he stood next to Cuba'south Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez: "This milestone does not signify an end to differences that still dissever our governments. Only information technology does reflect the reality that the Cold War concluded long ago and that the interests of both countries are better served past date than by estrangement."

Given the new era of collaboration, we've put together a timeline of the key moments of the Cuban embargo: