HISTORIC HANDSHAKE

The 7th Summit of the Americas, held in Panama, has already become one of the most important events of the year, sticking in mind with the meeting of the leaders of Cuba and the United States, who formally shook hands and had a brief conversation for the first time in half a century (since 1958). The US side called the handshake historic and said that it was a new chapter in relations with the island of freedom.

Actually, there was nothing sensational in the handshake - President Barack Obama and the chairman of the State Council and Council of Ministers of Cuba, Raul Castro, had greeted each other at the funeral of former South African leader Nelson Mandela. Even earlier, in 2000, the then leaders of Cuba and the United States - Fidel Castro and Bill Clinton - shook hands at a UN meeting. This time, everything was about statements made during the meeting.

US President Barack Obama acknowledged that "these 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked.  It's time for a new approach". "We need to establish relations with the Cuban government and the Cuban people. We are now ready to move forward, leaving behind all the difficulties and troubles that our countries have experienced," Obama said, stressing that "the Cold War is long over" and he is not interested "in the battles that began before his birth". Washington also pledged that the United States is no longer going to interfere in the affairs of Latin American countries. "The days when our plan of action in Latin America often stipulated that the United States could interfere with impunity in the internal affairs of other states are a thing of the past," Obama promised.

Cuba, which was represented at the summit for the first time in 1994, reacted with cautious enthusiasm to the words of its powerful neighbour, remembering "all the differences and all the years of complex history", but also recognizing the need to overcome differences. "After all, we are close neighbours," Raul Castro said, and this remark, of course, contains a lot of inevitable truth. In the 50 years of hostility, Cuba and the United States have not gone away from each other and still have to build relationships. But for the Cubans, who have long been living under the US embargo, words are not enough - they want action. "The restoration of diplomatic relations is one thing, and the blockade - quite another," the Cuban leader said.

Cubans also insist that their state must be taken off the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. Cuba was blacklisted under Reagan for supporting leftist rebels in Latin America, and it was also claimed that the Cubans had given refuge to Basque separatists and Colombian rebels and that the island was sheltering runaway American criminals. Later, Washington accused the Cuban regime that through its ally - Venezuela - Havana is helping the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. In his bid to take Havana off the blacklist, Obama is actually giving the nod to the advice of Secretary of State Kerry, who in turn was enlightened by experts. At least, that's how this whole process is presented by the media. The actions of the Cubans no longer irritate Washington. Incidentally, in January the United States enforced new, more liberal rules of trade with Cuba and visits to the island by US citizens.

"We have to be patient, very patient. We may not accept something today, but reach agreement tomorrow," Castro said in his speech at the summit, explaining that he was not blaming Obama personally for anything, but rather respects him for his honesty and "positive steps".

However, the summit did not adopt a joint declaration. The US State Department explained that everyone has too different interests and therefore it is very difficult to develop a document that satisfies all requirements. And in any case, such issues are not solved within a few days. Positive promises remained, and it is in this direction that we need to work.

There is no need to list the benefits Cuba will get from the establishment of relations with the United States. A small island country, which has become a kind of symbol of resistance to economic pressure worldwide, did not give up and even under sanctions, achieved relative success in areas such as education, health, income distribution and tourism. Still, the island of freedom urgently needs to stop being an "island" and connect to the rest of the world, especially its strong neighbour, for further development and decent life of its citizens. It is enough to mention that Cubans working in the US send home about 2bn dollars a year, and after the normalization of relations, this figure may rise significantly.

But what benefit will the United States get from the normalization of relations with Cuba? Maybe the reason for the rapprochement between Washington and Havana is that the US does not want to lose influence in the region to China and Russia? Perhaps, what is happening is a personal promise of Obama and his team, as in the case of Iran. Or, according to some media, the whole thing is in mediation by the Vatican, as Pope Francis is from Latin America? Does the US really understand the need for changes and simply follow them, or is it that they generate them themselves, really proclaiming a new regional policy?

Nearly two centuries ago it was in Panama that Simon Bolivar called on regional countries, who had managed to become independent by that time, to be cautious with the United States. Relations between the US and Latin America have never been a true partnership. It was acknowledged by Obama himself, who promised not to interfere in the affairs of his neighbours anymore. For many Latin American countries the US role in the region is associated with either pressure or neglect. Indeed, on the one hand, there is no significant security or nuclear threat in this part of the world, but, on the other, try to count the number of US military bases in Latin American countries. And often US-trained local anti-drug squads can also be easily regarded as a striking force of Washington, while the base at Guantanamo, which is directly related to Cuba, is a totally separate case. At the same time, the influence of the same Russia in Latin America is largely overrated even despite its military cooperation with several countries and plans to establish military bases. Chinese economic opportunities in this sense look much more substantial, but in any case, for the time being Beijing cannot operate freely in the "backyard" of the US. However, events do not stand still, and that's probably why Washington understood the need for positive changes. At the previous summit in Cartagena in Bolivia in 2012, Nicaragua and Venezuela told Obama that they will boycott the 2015 summit if Cuba is not there. That is to say Barack Obama is probably just trying to put a good face on a bad game. After all, the US is not demanding any significant concessions from Cuba. The answer to the question of what the Americans wanted to achieve with their sanctions remains open too. Why were so many lances broken and so many big words uttered? Again, as in the case of Iran. In early April, a historic agreement was reached between Washington and Tehran, the confrontation between which has been dragging on for decades due to Iran's nuclear programme. It turned out that not everything is so terrible and in principle, it is possible to make a deal with the Islamic Republic.

But the United States will also have to negotiate with Venezuela, the US sanctions against which (motivated by "protection of human rights and the fight against corruption" as well as a "threat to US national security) were condemned by all Latin American countries. And Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro feels this support. At the monument to the victims of the US invasion of Panama in 1989, Maduro demanded that Washington apologize and pay compensation. "I am ready for dialogue with the president of the United States. I wrote letters, but they did not reply to them. Three months ago I sent them the data on our new ambassador, but have not yet received approval. Are we at war? How many more months do I have to wait, President Obama?" Maduro said at the summit, but Obama is still silent in his address. Perhaps, his goal is to destroy the main socialist axis of the region Venezuela-Cuba, and, therefore, the two countries need to be put on different sides of the barricades.

By the way, going back to alternatives to US influence in the region, experts wonder whether the confrontation between Moscow and Washington will affect Cuba again. Cuba lived off Soviet aid for a long time, but oddly enough, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Havana continued to stand its own ground. Now Moscow has too many problems along its own borders, and Russia's ambitions are too far from the ones the Soviet Union had in order to create big trouble for the United States almost at its home. It is necessary to take into account the attitude of the Cubans themselves. A recent Reuters poll showed that 80 per cent of Cubans have a favourable attitude to Barack Obama. And finally, we should not believe that Washington is a victim of inertia in this case. The establishment of relations with Cuba cannot but be an elaborate White House policy dictated by quite clear interests - strategic position, trade, minerals, tourism and support for Latin American immigrants. The past with the smoke-shrouded ghosts of Fidel Castro and Comandante Che Guevara, the Kennedys, Marilyn Monroe, Khrushchev's shoe and other figures is likely to really stay in the 20th century.