Cuba to Attend Security Conference With US for First Time

Cuba to Attend Security Conference With US for First Time
By BEN FOX, ASSOCIATED PRESS MIAMI — Jan 12, 2016, 1:55 PM ET

A delegation from Cuba will take part for the first time in an annual
Caribbean regional security conference co-sponsored by the U.S.
military's Southern Command, a senior official said Tuesday, portraying
the participation as a significant step in the ongoing thaw between the
long-hostile neighbors.

The Cuban government's decision to accept an invitation to the Caribbean
Nations Security Conference in Jamaica this month follows other
relatively small but symbolic forms of military engagement between
countries that normalized relations in December 2015, said Marine Corps
Gen. John F. Kelly, the commander of Southern Command.

"We've normalized now and, regardless of how we think of each other in
terms of politics, we have very, very common challenges," Kelly said in
an interview two days before he ends his tenure as commander of U.S.
military operations in the Southern Hemisphere.

The conference takes place over three days starting Jan. 27 in Kingston,
Jamaica. Senior military and other security officials are expected from
16 Caribbean countries as well as the U.S., Canada, France, the
Netherlands and United Kingdom. Cuba has not yet said who it will send
and its government had no immediate response to a request for comment by
The Associated Press. Venezuela, which has a chilly relationship with
Washington, won't be there, Kelly said.

In the past, the conference has focused on cooperative efforts to combat
drug trafficking as well as the smuggling of people and weapons. It is
not clear if Cuba would take the opportunity to again raise its vehement
objection to the presence of the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The administration of President Barack Obama has said it wants to close
the Guantanamo detention center, where it holds 103 men, but has said
discussion of the future of the base, which occupies 45 square miles
(117 square kilometers) on the southeastern corner of the island, is not
on the table.

Kelly said he believes the facility remains strategically valuable, a
deepwater port in the Caribbean, and he would like to see it remain open
even if the detention center closes. He suggested it could be run
jointly with the Cubans, offering employment to the local population as
it once did. But the general says he hasn't discussed it with anyone in
the Castro government. "It wouldn't be appropriate," he said.

Working with the State Department, the military in September hosted a
delegation of Cuban doctors on board the USS Comfort hospital ship
during a humanitarian visit to in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which Kelly
pointed to as evidence of improved relations.

Cuban military officials and the Navy commander of the base at
Guantanamo have long held regular private meetings to discuss issues
such as fire protection in the arid no-man's land around the base.

The level of security between the base and the rest of Cuban territory
has also changed. Kelly, who is retiring after a 45-year career,
recalled being sent to Guantanamo in 1971 when he was a Marine Corps
private first class. At the time, there was a battalion of 1,400 troops
guarding the fence, reinforced with tanks, artillery and tens of
thousands of mines, which have since been removed.

"I don't even know if they man their side of the fence anymore. We have
minimal security on our side," he said.

Source: Cuba to Attend Security Conference With US for First Time - ABC
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http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cuba-attend-security-conference-us-time-36242188