WASHINGTON — President Obama’s push for a historic opening with Cuba faces its first major test this week as he travels to a summit in Latin America, where he hopes to highlight momentum toward ending a half-century of isolation from the island nation.
Even before Obama was to board Air Force One on Wednesday, White House officials signaled that the administration was nearing a decision on whether to remove Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. That left open the possibility that the president could use the Summit of the Americas in Panama to clear a major sticking point in the effort to restore diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana.
The move would pave the way for the reopening of embassies that have been closed for more than 50 years, a crucial step in the easing of tensions between the United States and Cuba that Obama announced in December.
Obama will travel first to Jamaica before going to Panama for the meeting, which begins Friday. Cuba will attend the meeting for the first time after being expelled from the Organization of American States in 1962 at the behest of the United States. Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba will face each other in official meetings for the first time, interacting at summit events and on the sidelines.
Although White House aides said no formal one-on-one meeting between the two men was scheduled, top Cuban and US officials are expected to hold talks, building on months of behind-the-scenes diplomatic negotiations. And with or without any change in the terrorism designation, the meeting will offer a stage for a powerful moment and some closely watched body language.
“When you have two countries that haven’t really spoken to each other like this in over 50 years, you have a lot of issues to work through,” said Benjamin J. Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser.
He said the State Department, which oversees the list of state sponsors of terrorism, “is likely in the final stages” of reviewing Cuba’s inclusion in it at the president’s direction.
Obama strongly suggested this week that he was inclined to remove the designation, which has limited Cuba’s access to banking services around the world .