Obama first signaled improved relations with Cuba when he shook Castro's hand at Nelson Mandela's memorial service in 2013. Obama greets Castro at summit The two also are expected to meet Saturday on the sidelines of the summit.

President Barack Obama spoke with Cuban President Raul Castro ahead of this week’s Summit of the Americas, and the pair greeted one another and shook hands at the gathering in Panama late Friday, White House officials said.

The two also are expected to meet Saturday on the sidelines of the summit. As the hemisphere’s leaders gathered, Secretary of State John Kerry also met in person with his Cuban counterpart, marking the first meeting at that level since 1958.


The conversations come as the Obama administration moves forward with its plans to normalize relations with the communist state. On Thursday, Cuba appeared poised to clear a key hurdle to normalization by being removed from the United States’ list of state sponsors of terror.

Although the call to Castro ahead of the trip to Panama was “not a particularly lengthy” one, Obama and the Cuban leader discussed issues relating to the normalization of relations and setting up embassies, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters at a briefing in Panama City.

“They reviewed the fact that we’re going to continue to have areas of common cooperation, but also areas of difference,” Rhodes said, later adding, “We’re going to continue to speak up for human rights, just as we’re going to have differences on the nature of Cuba’s political system.”

Still, Rhodes noted, “The United States is not in the business of going around trying to overthrow governments” — speaking to a sensitive issue not just in Cuba but also many of the other Latin American states participating in the summit.

Obama traveled to Panama on Thursday after a visit to Jamaica. He is slated to hold a series of meetings with Western Hemisphere leaders at the summit. He also spoke Friday afternoon at the Civil Society Forum in Panama City.

Wednesday’s call was not Obama’s first to the brother of Fidel Castro, who succeeded him in leading the communist government of the island nation. Obama and Castro also spoke in December, when the administration first announced plans to restore ties that were severed after the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

“I was very insistent with him that we would continue to promote democracy and human rights and speak out forcefully on behalf of the freedom of the people of Cuba,” Obama told ABC News.

On Friday evening during the summit, “President Obama and President Castro greeted each other and shook hands,” confirmed Bernadette Meehan, spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

A White House official said the interaction was informal and there was no substantive conversation between the two men.

Obama’s plans to normalize relations have drawn resistance from some members of Congress. But the issue splits both parties, with Democrats and Republicans falling on both sides, and legislative efforts to block new relations with Cuba would struggle to gain a veto-proof majority.

Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.