Cuba, US Formally Restore Ties after 50 Years

Another historic development in the restoration of relations between the United States and Cuba happened Monday.

Cuban officials formally opened their embassy in Washington, D.C., fully restoring diplomatic relations between the nations after five decades of hostility.

At midnight Monday, Cuba's flag was hung in the lobby of the U.S. State Department.

"A new stage will begin, long and complex, on the road toward normalization which will require the will to find solutions to the problems that have accumulated over more than five decades and hurt ties between our nations and peoples," Cuban President Raul Castro said in a televised address.

Likewise, the United States reopened its six-story embassy in Cuba's captial city of Havana.

"It's a historic moment," Cuban diplomat and analyst Carlos Alzugaray said. "The significance of opening the embassies is that trust and respect that you can see, both sides treating the other with trust and respect."

"That doesn't mean there aren't going to be conflicts -- there are bound to be conflicts," he acknowledged. "But the way that you treat the conflict has completely changed."