President Obama formally announced on Wednesday that the United States and Cuba have both agreed to open embassies in each other’s capitals following more than a half-century of hostilities between the two nations.

President Obama formally announced on Wednesday that the United States and Cuba have both agreed to open embassies in each other’s capitals following more than a half-century of hostilities between the two nations.  

"This is an historic step," Obama said.
The US Embassy in Havana is scheduled to open on July 20.

The tentative date was suggested in a letter that the head of the US Interests Section in Cuba, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, delivered to Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Marcelino Medina.

The missive "confirms the decision to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries and open permanent diplomatic missions in their respective capitals, from July 20," the foreign ministry said on its website.

The reopening of the embassies will be the culmination of the historic decision by Obama and Castro on December 17 to re-establish diplomatic relations that broke off in 1961.

Both countries are currently represented by interests sections, and US and Cuban diplomats are not allowed to go out of Havana and Washington without official authorization from the host countries.

The two sides have been holding negotiations for months, and a major breakthrough was reached in late May when Washington removed Havana from a blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism.