U.S., Cuba Mull Direct Postal Service

Cuba says it's "satisfied" with today's meeting between Cuban and U.S. officials on normalizing direct mail between the two countries. That service was discontinued in August 1963, a year after Washington imposed an economic and trade embargo on the fledgling revolution led by Fidel Castro.

A statement issued by Havana says the meeting "made it possible to examine the issues that make it difficult to normalize postal exchange" between the two countries. The head of the Cuban delegation is quoted as saying it allowed both sides to "evaluate a body of specific proposals intended to overcome these obstacles," but no details were given.

Heading the delegations to the one-day-talks were Josefina Vidal, director of the North America Division of the Cuban Foreign Ministry and Bisa Williams, acting assistant undersecretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs in the State Department, the most senior Obama administration official to visit Cuba. Williams was accompanied by representatives of the U.S. Postal Service.

Vidal further described the talks as "broad and useful," according to the statement, which says Havana put special emphasis on the importance of eliminating the United States "blockade," as the embargo is known by Cubans so as to reestablish direct postal service under the norms set out by the Universal Postal Union to which both countries belong.

A functionary in the press office of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana says the U.S. delegation has not yet issued any statement on the conversations.

Regular mail and services such as DHL from Cuba must go through a third country before reaching the United States, causing delays and other inconveniences.

One issue raised by Cuba in the past is the lack of commercial flights from the U.S. to the island because of the travel ban prohibiting Americans from visiting. The absence of those flights makes it obligatory for mail to travel through third countries.

There are direct charter flights between the U.S. and Cuba but the only people allowed to take them are Cuban Americans with relatives on the island, diplomats, press and Americans with special licenses from the U.S. Treasury Department.

Thursday evening's statement says Havana raised the issues of how the mail would be transported, "postal security and the payment methods for this service".

Just a few days ago, President Barack Obama, like all of his predecessors, signed a measure formally extending the economic and trade embargo for another year. Cuba, meanwhile, is gearing up to present – for the 18th time – a resolution against the embargo at the U.N. General Assembly later this month. That resolution has passed overwhelmingly in the past.

According to the Cubans, both sides in the talks "agreed on the need to continue the conversations in the coming months".

In a press conference Wednesday, Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez noted that the level of tension between the two neighboring countries has diminished under the new Administration but stressed that apart from that and an easing of restrictions that limited contacts between Cuban Americans and their families back home there has been absolutely no change in Washington's policy toward Havana.