Obama and Cuba's Raul Castro to 'interact' at Summit of the Americas: US official

PUBLISHED ON APR 4, 2015 9:39 AM

US President Barack Obama (right) and Cuban counterpart Raul Castro will have an "interaction" when they attend next week's Summit of the Americas in Panama. It will be the first between the two leaders since the historic rapprochement between Havana and Washington. -- PHOTOS: REUTERS, EPA 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - United States President Barack Obama and Cuban counterpart Raul Castro will have an "interaction" when they attend next week's Summit of the Americas in Panama, a US official said Friday. It will be the first between the two leaders since the historic rapprochement between Havana and Washington.

"Clearly President Obama knew when he made the decision to go to the summit, and he knew that Cuba had been invited to the summit... that there would be an interaction," US State Department official Roberta Jacobson said at the Brookings Institution.

"The leaders are together a lot of the time. And so there will be an interaction with Raul Castro," she added, declining to speculate about the nature of any possible meeting between the two leaders.

But she added Mr Obama's only confirmed meeting was with Panama leader Juan Carlos Varela. "None of the President's meetings are scheduled other than his bilateral with President Varela as the host," she said. "So I don't know exactly what kind of an interaction that will be. But they've obviously already spoken on the phone... and there's been a lot of interaction since then at a lower level."