Obama announces re-establishment of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic ties

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that it was past time for the U.S. to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba as he announced that the two countries were reopening their embassies after more than 50 years.

"When the United States shuttered our embassy in 1961, I don't think anyone thought it would be more than half a century before it reopened," he said in remarks from the White House Rose Garden.

Earlier Wednesday in Havana, a U.S. diplomat delivered a note from Obama to Cuban President Raul Castro restoring diplomatic ties.

The short ceremony at the Cuban Foreign Ministry in Havana ended 54 years of broken relations that began during the Eisenhower administration. Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the chief of mission at the U.S. Interests Section, delivered the note

astro also sent a letter to Obama.

"We want to develop a friendship between our two nations that is based on the equality of rights and the people's free will," Castro said in the letter, read on state-run TV.

He went on to say that Cuba hopes to resolve differences with the United States through peaceful means, that each nation must respect the territorial integrity of the other and they should not interfere in each other's political affairs.

However, the Cuban Foreign Ministry indicated that hurdles still remained in the thaw of U.S.-Cuba relations due to the embargo that the U.S. has imposed on Cuba.

"There could be no normal relations between Cuba and the United States as long as the economic, commercial and financial blockade continues to be fully implemented, causing damage and scarcities to the Cuban people," reads a statement received by CNN. "The blockade is the main obstacle to the development of our economy; it is a violation of International Law and affects the interests of all countries, including those of the United States."

Obama has relaxed several of the prohibitions on trade and travel that have existed between the two countries, but many remain in place and can only be removed by legislation.

Obama called Wednesday for Congress to lift the embargo that prevents Cubans from traveling or doing business in Cuba.