President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that the United States and Cuba have struck a deal to open embassies in each other’s capitals and re-establish diplomatic relations between them for the first time in half a century.

“The progress we make today is another demonstration we don’t have to be imprisoned by the past, the president said.

In making the announcement, the president acknowledged that while there are some shared interest, such as anti-terrorism, there remain serious and profound differences on such issues as human rights and freedom of speech that the two nations continue to have “very serious differences” on, the president said. MORE