Summary

  • The US and Cuba have begun historic talks about restoring diplomatic relations

  • A US embassy in Havana is being planned, among a raft of measures

  • Cuban leader Raul Castro and US President Barack Obama both made TV addresses

  • "These 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked," said Mr Obama

  • The move marks a dramatic shift in a relationship that has been strained since the Cold War era

  • US citizen Alan Gross was released earlier from a Cuban prison, while the US freed three Cubans jailed for spying

Live Reporting

Tom Geoghegan, Debbie Siegelbaum and Taylor Kate Brown

  1. "We have agreed to re-establish diplomatic ties after more than half a century," he said in a nationally broadcast address. But the US trade embargo, which he called the "blockade", remained unresolved, he added.

  2. Cuban President Raul Castro was also speaking in a TV address at the same time as Mr Obama. He confirmed Cuba had agreed to re-establish diplomatic ties with its Cold War enemy.

  3. David Botti
    BBC News

    There is a large gap in how younger and older Cuban Americans feel about the US relationship with Cuba.

    Cuba datapic

  4. "Change is hard, in our own lives and the lives of nations," Mr Obama says as he closes his address. "Today we are making these changes because it is the right thing to do."

  5. Mr Obama thanks Pope Francis, the government of Canada and a bipartisan group of members of Congress for their assistance in advancing changes in US-Cuban policy.

  6. We should not allow US sanctions to add to the burden of Cuban citizens we seek to help, Mr Obama says in his televised speech.

  7. "I do not expect the changes I am announcing today to bring about a transformation of Cuban society overnight," Mr Obama explains.

  8. Cuban journalist Elaine Diaz tweets: "Listening Obama, praying"

    Cuban journalist Elaine Diaz tweets: "Listening Obama, praying"

  9. The US will open an embassy in Havana in the coming months, Mr Obama says.

  10. "I look forward to engaging Congress in an honest and serious debate" about lifting further restrictions codified in US law, Mr Obama adds.

  11. "Increased commerce is good for Americans and Cubans," Mr Obama says of restrictions lifted on trade and commerce between the two nations.

  12. "Isolation has not worked. It's time for a new approach," Mr Obama says of the embargo policy against Cuba in place since 1961.

  13. Mirta Ojito, Cuban American journalist, tweets: "Raul Castro still unhappy that 'blockade' remains in place."

  14. Also released was an unnamed agent who had gathered crucial intelligence for the US government, he says.

  15. He was released by the Cuban government on humanitarian grounds, says the president.

  16. The wrongful imprisonment of US citizen Alan Gross for five years in Cuba was a major impediment to policy changes, Mr Obama claims.

  17. David Botti, BBC News

    Many of the Cubans who left the country have moved to nearby Florida, especially in Miami - the state's southern most city and only 90 miles (144km) away from Cuba.

    Datapic

  18. Neither the American or Cuban people are well served by a "rigid" policy imposed decades earlier, Mr Obama adds.

  19. Sanctions have had little effect, says Mr Obama.

  20. US President Barack Obama is making a TV address now.