The following is an English transcription and Spanish translation of Assistant Secretary Jacobson’s remarks. A Spanish transcription and English translation is also available.

[Transcription of English remarks begins.]

ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: Good morning. It’s a pleasure to be here with you today. It’s been an eventful couple of days in Havana for the U.S. delegation and for our Cuban counterparts. I know you have a lot of questions, so I’m going to try and make my opening remarks brief.

First let me say what an honor it is for me to be the first U.S. Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs to visit Havana in 38 years. I had the opportunity to visit Cuba four years ago when I led the U.S. delegation to the migration talks in 2011 as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere. But now we have entered a truly new context with the announcement by President Obama that the U.S. intends to normalize relations with Cuba. And while the road ahead is a long and complex one, I am very pleased to be a part of it.

[In Spanish] The road to the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States will be very complex, but every road begins with a first step, which is what we did yesterday. [End Spanish remarks]

The United States just completed two days of intensive discussions with our Cuban counterparts. The first day was our regular migration talks that take place every six months led by my deputy Alex Lee. Yesterday, I led our discussions in two rounds of talks. The morning focused on the steps for re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba. These steps are only part of the process of normalization which will continue beyond the establishment of embassies and is quite complex. However, we also have many issues of mutual interest on which we can now make progress.

The second set of discussions in the afternoon dealt with a range of issues in our bilateral relations. Let me say that these talks were cordial and respectful. I believe that each delegation understood the importance of the task we are facing in trying to mend more than 50 years of diplomatic estrangement. I hope you are already aware of the steps taken by the Treasury and Commerce Departments to increase travel, commerce, and the flow of information to and from Cuba. These measures are fundamentally about promoting freedom and openness that will help to empower the Cuban people, including the country’s emerging independent entrepreneurs.

In addition, the United States will now seek to advance shared interests with Cuba where this is possible. This will include building on incipient dialogues in the areas of global health security, counternarcotics, law enforcement, environmental cooperation, education exchanges, and combatting trafficking in persons. We will also continue existing talks on migration issues, establishing direct mail service, and other areas.

While our discussions yesterday reviewed these areas of cooperation, we are also – we also addressed continuing areas of deep disagreement between the United States and Cuba. This includes our concern about progress in the areas of freedom of expression and human rights. We also raised the need for greater cooperation with regards to U.S. fugitives from justice and other areas of concern. These issues too will be part of this renewed bilateral dialogue.

Let me conclude by saying that yesterday marked an important step forward for the relationship between the United States and Cuba, but it was just a first step. We know there will need to be many more. But this is the work of diplomacy in order to build a better and more productive relationship between our two countries. Thank you very much, and I look forward to your questions.

MODERATOR: The first question goes to Michael Weissenstein from AP.

QUESTION: The – as you just said, one of the primary goals of this new U.S. policy is to create the space for civil society and entrepreneurs, whereas the Cubans have made very clear that they don’t see an increase of U.S. influence inside Cuba as something they want or what’s on the table.

After these two days, what can you tell us about how – what’s your sense of how this new policy is working or not working, and how it’s going to work in the future? What can the Cubans expect from normalization in five years, ten years?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: Well, I want to start out by saying that I don’t have a crystal ball so I don’t know exactly how this is going to work out in five years or ten years. What I do know and what the President and the Secretary have stated clearly is we know what’s happened in the last 50, and we know that the policy that we had pursued over the last 50 years had served solely to isolate us and not to create the empowerment of the Cuban people that we were seeking.

Our ends remain the same, which is to empower those people. We have had only a month since the presidents made their announcement, and we have only had the first conversation about how that policy will be implemented. So it’s very hard to say exactly how this will work, but we’re extremely committed to moving ahead with engagement with the Cuban people and engagement in dialogues directly with the Cuban Government to serve that end, and with the important work of ensuring that the Cuban people have the information they need to make their own decisions.

We think that we need to make decisions in our own interest and take decisions that are going to empower the Cuban people. But the verdict on whether that succeeds is still to be made, and we’ll all have to try and do our best to facilitate these changes and to evaluate them as we move forward.

QUESTION: Any sense of – do you feel more optimistic or more pessimistic after these two days?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: I have learned in diplomacy for the number of years that I have been involved that it’s never a good idea to draw your conclusions after a first conversation.

MODERATOR: The next question goes to NPR, Carrie Kahn.

QUESTION: You told us yesterday that in the third round you were going to – oh, thank you. You told us yesterday that once again in the third round you were going to bring up the subject of human rights. Can you tell us exactly what you said, and specifically what was the Cuban reaction? Did you press them or did you pressure them? We heard from Josefina Vidal last night that she said she did not feel pressure from you, and in fact, the Cubans raised the issue of the human rights problem with the United States and offered their help (inaudible). So if you could tell us your reaction to that, thank you.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: Thank you. Let me start out by saying that the purpose of my visit was to discuss the specifics of moving ahead on the diplomatic re-establishment, and then in the second half of our conversations to talk about a range of issues as part of bilateral dialogues, one of which will be the subject of human rights. But there is no doubt that human rights remains the center of our policy, and it is crucial that we will continue to both speak out about human rights publicly and directly now with the Cuban Government.

I think that it is obviously part of what we’re talking about when we say we have profound disagreements with the Cuban Government when we talk about democracy and human rights and support for civil society and independent actors. But when we talk about those things and we talk about pressing the Government of Cuba to do more on human rights, we often talk about, and often our counterparts in many countries talk about, the United Nations system. And I would underscore the fact that the most important instrument in that context is called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and it is called the Universal Declaration for a reason, because it is, in fact, universal. It applies to all of us.

So we talk about those issues because all of us are bound by them. I think that when American leaders have talked about human rights, whether globally or in the United States, one of our most important virtues is to acknowledge our own imperfections but acknowledge that our system allows for transparency and freedom of expression and the ability to speak out and have information and move forward to correct our imperfections. The Cuban people are entitled to no less.

So we have those differences, but I did not come here as an expert on any individual subject. The individual subjects, whether they are environmental cooperation or global health security or telecommunications or any of a number of other areas in our bilateral dialogues, are things that the experts will talk about it in the future. And I was pleased that in the afternoon’s conversations we had agreement that there is a very broad range of issues that we will discuss in the future, whether or not we can come to agreement on some of those or we will continue to disagree on others, as we do with governments around the world.

MODERATOR: The next question goes to the BBC, Barbara Plett.

QUESTION: Thank you. You said you weren’t a telecoms expert, but in your talks do you get a sense from the Cuban side about how the government would accept greater telecommunications (inaudible)?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: We can hear you.

MODERATOR: Go again.

QUESTION: In your talks did you get a sense from the Cuban side of the government they would accept greater telecommunications exports to improve the Internet on the island?

And briefly, secondly, these have been historic talks. Did the delegation get any sort of message from Raul Castro?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: Well, on the telecommunications issue, I think that one of the important things about this conversation was to begin to introduce subject matters, and one of those obviously was to discuss at least briefly the new regulations that have been put in place following the President’s announcement of December 17th. As you all know, I hope, those regulations were put into place, implemented on January 16th and those do include new regulations on telecommunications.

This is a critical part of our new policy. The access and ability of the Cuban people to information is really critically important. It is not, I think – I am not able to say at this point exactly how those regulations will be utilized by the private sector in the United States, nor am I necessarily able to say yet how the Cuban Government will receive or take advantage of those new regulations. I did not get any specifics on that from these talks. But that indeed is the purpose of further conversations with the Cuban Government by experts on telecommunications, because having such a conversation with me would not necessarily be productive as I’m not the expert.

We look forward in the very near future to having conversations specifically on telecommunications between experts so that this can move forward. And as the President and the Secretary intend, we can be facilitating that access to information, access to a greater infrastructure on information in Cuba; and we will see whether the Cuban Government is willing to accept as much support, engagement of telecommunications providers and Internet service and others in that field as are interested in providing such equipment and services as is now possible under the new regulations.

QUESTION: The second question?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: Oh, I did not receive any direct messages from the leadership of the Cuban Government. My conversations were with Director General Vidal.

[Transcription of English remarks concludes. Translation of Spanish remarks begins.]

MODERATOR: And now the remarks in Spanish.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: Thank you. If you’ll permit me to begin. It's really a pleasure to be with you here today. We have spent some eventful days in Havana for the delegation of the United States and our Cuban counterparts. I know you have many questions, so my opening remarks will be brief, and I will translate only part of my speech into English in Spanish to shorten the time a little.

First let me say what an honor it is for me to be the first U.S. Assistant Secretary [of State] for Western Hemisphere Affairs to visit Havana in 38 years. I had the opportunity to visit Cuba four years ago when I led the U.S. delegation to the migration talks in 2011 as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere. But now we have entered a truly new context with the announcement by President Obama that the U.S. intends to normalize relations with Cuba. And while the road ahead is a long and complex one, I am very pleased to be a part of it.

The United States just completed two days of intensive discussions with our Cuban counterparts. The first day was our regular migration talks that take place every six months led by my deputy Alex Lee. Yesterday, I led our discussions in two rounds of talks. The morning focused on the steps for re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba. These steps are only part of the process of normalization which will continue beyond the establishment of embassies and is quite complex. However, we also have many issues of mutual interest on which we can now make progress.

The second set of discussions in the afternoon dealt with a range of issues in our bilateral relations. Thank you and I'm ready for your questions.

MODERATOR: First question to August Cesar San Martin from Cubanet.

QUESTION: Despite the willingness of Cuba to restore relations after the (inaudible) there was much talk of a great process and (inaudible) the differences between the two countries. What might be the reasons why this process could be slow?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: The reason for this process, in the end, as President Obama said, it's really not only to restore diplomatic relations, but also to try to empower the Cuban people to have a country, so close to the United States, which is free and democratic. We really want to overcome the difficulties of fifty years of isolation. The two countries, the two peoples cannot do this in one day, or in one month, but the end of that process is the same as before, for people in Cuba to make decisions about the future of the Cuban people,

but the tactics, the measures to implement that policy must change, because after fifty years, we cannot continue taking the same measures, making the same efforts. Now, that will take time, and we must understand that as I said before, although the policy of the United States has changed, we are ready to move forward. Let's see if the Cuban government is ready to move as fast as we are.

MODERATOR: Second question: Sergio Gómez from Granma.

QUESTION: How can we continue to advance the process of normalization of relations between the two countries, while the embargo is maintained and Cuba continues to be included on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism? Is President Obama willing to continue to use his executive powers to ease these measures? In this sense, isn’t the result contradictory, that Cuba and the United States are talking to cooperate to address Ebola, and at the same time, the United States promotes the defection of Cuban doctors who are fighting the virus in Africa, giving some parole, for them to stay in your country.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: Well, I think those are things that ... many of the things you mentioned, such as the embargo, are in the legislative arena. President Obama has made clear, including the other day in his speech before Congress which is called the State of the Union, that he wants Congress to act on the embargo and the legislation that continues the embargo, but he only has powers up to the executive point. So he has changed what he can and has changed the terms of debate, but there are things that in our constitutional system, only Congress can do, and we have to say that there are legislative rights and executive rights, so we will continue to discuss with Congress the new policy and hopes we have for this policy. I also want to mention that included in the December 17 speech, President Obama has clearly said he has asked the Secretary of State to review the list of state sponsors of terrorism in the world, and that is one thing we are implementing now. That is not to say that we know exactly how we will conclude at the end of that process, but he has clearly said that this is part of that process, so I think that's one thing that is already in mind of the President, one thing on which we have to focus. I think that the things referred to reflect that to have diplomatic relations is not a gift, it is not something that reflects that we are countries that do not have differences. Of course we have differences, we have discrepancies and differences with many countries in the world, but that does not mean we cannot have diplomatic relations. In many other countries in the world we have differences, even deep differences, but we still have diplomatic relations, and I think we can, as diplomats, act and serve our public more effectively, if we can have for example, the freedom to travel around the island in a more normal way like the other embassies. This is a really important thing for us as part of that process, in the re-establishment of relations, or that the Cuban people can access our new embassy, freely, without interference in approaching, or go to the embassy without writing down the names of people when they come to the embassy. Those are some of the discussions from both sides, but I think those are part of the discussions now.

QUESTION: Regarding the parole program with (inaudible) doctors.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: Well, those things are part of the law of the United States, we have no plans to change, but also, if part of the law, they are things that are in the arena of Congress, but we have no plans to change,... I think they are things that reflect our perspective, these are sovereign things by the United States, and when there are discrepancies we can discuss them.

MODERATOR: Last question: Soledad Alvarez from EFE.

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: I’m sorry, but I can’t hear you well.

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY JACOBSON: One thing is the process of the restoration of diplomatic relations that is underway, and that is very important, is progressing, at least that discussion, and another is to discuss the more profound things, with experts and with frankness, including things in which we have profound differences. I believe that the process of restoring diplomatic relations will continue and is not conditioned on other things that are issues within the dialogue, but that are part of the total dialogue, and we have to emphasize that this will continue. Now, as I said, is also very important that as part of the restoration of diplomatic relations that the Cuban people have access to a U.S. mission located here in Cuba, an embassy, and that our diplomats have the possibility of travel freely on the island of Cuba. Perhaps these are not human rights issues, but are issues of contact with the Cuban people that are very important, and yes, are linked to the restoration of diplomatic relations. On the second, I with great pleasure, I have the opportunity to have meetings with many sectors of civil society while I'm here, including the other day, with government institutions, with the Jewish community, with whom I have a pretty long relationship. Today at breakfast, I had the opportunity to discuss with some civil society activists their perspectives, to listen well to their differences with the new policy, or to their support. I believe that while it is interesting to hear the perspectives of our colleagues here in Havana, there is nothing that can replace personal contact, and it was very important for me to hear their perspectives, and how we can support civil society in the future, so it was invaluable for me to have this opportunity, and I will have more contact with others during the day. Thank you very much.

[Translation of Spanish remarks concludes.]