­In 1961, in the heat of the Cold, War the United States severed its ties with Cuba. The separation came shortly after Communist leader Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro seized control of Cuba.

The isolation between the United States and Cuba has outlasted 10 United states presidents, a failed invasion, and a tense nuclear stand off. Through all of this time, the Castro brothers have continued to successfully maintain control Cuba. Now President Obama, who is the 11th United States president to deal with the Castro’s, motioned that it is time for their relationship to change.

United States President Barrack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro met face to face marking the first time in over 50 years the two countries’ leaders have spoken to each other.

The two leaders met during the 21st annual summit of the Americas on April 11, 2015, which was held in Panama. The two had talked on the phone prior to meeting, and used the annual summit as an opportunity to talk about the new era of American and Cuban relations. This “ historical meeting.” which lasted for an hour, featured both presidents discussing their plans to work together to reestablish diplomatic relations. This was the first time that Cuban president Raul Castro attended the annual summit and the 7th time that President Obama has attended.

Obama used this opportunity to state that it is time to end the antagonism that resulted from the cold war, and work towards repairing relations between the two countries. Obama said that he would continue to pressure the communist country on its human rights violations. These violations consist of things such as public beatings and threats of long term imprisonment to anyone who speaks out against Cuba’s government. “I think what we have both concluded is that we can disagree with a spirit of respect and civility,” Obama said at the summit, “and that over time it is possible for us to turn the page and develop a new relationship between our two countries.” He is confident in the nations’ ability to work together on some of the common goals that they share.

When Castro spoke, he spoke for almost an hour, and while he criticized past American presidents and policies, he praised President Obama as an honest man. Castro agreed with Obama and mentioned that his people feel hopeful about repairing relations with the United States.

However, talking is only the first step to repairing relations between these two countries who have a long and complicated history with each other. The next step is working towards normalizing diplomatic relations between the two countries. In order for this to happen, Cuba has to be officially removed from the United State’s list of states that sponsor terrorism, a list that only consists of three other countries: Iran, Sudan and Syria. As of April 14, Obama officially announced plans to remove Cuba from that list. This came after Obama stressed that Cuba and its people are no longer considered a threat to America. Unfortunately the process of removing Cuba from this list could take some time. Congress has 45 days to decide whether or not they are going to stop the process. If Congress does not decide to halt it, then Cuba will proceed to be taken off the list which in turn will lift several sanctions that were placed on Cuba.

If Cuba is taken off of the list, the next step would be to open embassies in both countries. The United States embassy in Havana Cuba would be reopened, and Cuba would be able to open an embassy in Washington D.C. This would in turn create a more open environment to move forward in reestablishing relations between the countries.

The United States is already well on its way to easing travel restrictions to Cuba. In January, the Obama administration began taking steps towards lifting travel bans on Cuba. Prior to this year there were travel restrictions in place against Cuba forbidding any U.S citizen to fly there. Any United States citizen wishing to travel to Cuba previously had to leave the borders of the United States and fly out of places such as Canada, the Cayman Islands and Mexico.

Now, three months later, travel agencies have started to offer direct flights from the United States to Cuba. Currently, ordinary tourism is still outlawed for U.S citizens and travelers need to provide a reason for their visit to Cuba such as for school or journalism. Now visitors of Cuba will be allowed to spend more while they’re there and bring back up to 100 dollars in cuban cigars, before visitors were not permitted to bring anything back from Cuba.

Although travel bans have been lifted some restrictions are still in place. Difficult work lies ahead in forming a new relationship between the two countries. It will take some time before relations are fully restored between Cuba and America.