--- title: President Barack Obama Called President Raul Castro, White House Says description: The two spoke via telephone on Wednesday, no further details were provided canonical: https://time.com/3817419/president-obama-phones-cuban-leader-raul-castro/ copyright: © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. terms: https://legal.time.com/terms-of-service/ license_contact: syndication@time.com author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-10T15:25:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T06:18:44.701Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama Phones Cuban Leader, White House Confirms og:description: The two spoke via telephone on Wednesday og:url: https://time.com/3817419/president-obama-phones-cuban-leader-raul-castro/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0bbfc581022fe6f/6987ea3a5f570f20b4b190ca/obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2484 og:image:height: 1397 og:image:alt: President Barack Obama makes his way to Air Force One before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on April 8, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Phones Cuban Leader, White House Confirms twitter:description: The two spoke via telephone on Wednesday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0bbfc581022fe6f/6987ea3a5f570f20b4b190ca/obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Phones Cuban Leader, White House Confirms > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=ead18559-4755-43e2-b893-b53769dd5ac5&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 10, 2015 3:25 PM UTC  President Barack Obama makes his way to Air Force One before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on April 8, 2015 President Barack Obama makes his way to Air Force One before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on April 8, 2015 Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 10, 2015 3:25 PM UTC President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro have spoken on the phone for the second time, a White House official confirmed, in a historic move that comes amid improved relations between the U.S. and Cuba. The conversation took place Wednesday, before the President left for his trip to Jamaica and Panama, where this weekend’s Summit of the Americas offers an opportunity for Obama and Castro to have a face-to-face meeting. No further details of the discussion were provided. All eyes have been on Cuba and U.S. relations throughout the President’s travels this week. It has been four months since the White House announced that the U.S. would be taking a new approach to Cuban policy after decades of tension. Obama and Castro could sit down for a meeting as soon as Saturday, reports say, but the White House has not said that a formal meeting is scheduled. The U.S. may also soon announce that Cuba will be removed from the State Department’s list of terror sponsors, a lingering sore spot in the relationship between the nations. In another sign of change, Secretary of State John Kerry and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez also sat down for a meeting on Thursday. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3817419/president-obama-phones-cuban-leader-raul-castro/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3817419/president-obama-phones-cuban-leader-raul-castro/"},"headline":"President Obama Phones Cuban Leader, White House Confirms","datePublished":"2015-04-10T15:25:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T06:18:44.701Z","description":"The two spoke via telephone on Wednesday","url":"https://time.com/3817419/president-obama-phones-cuban-leader-raul-castro/","keywords":["Foreign Relations"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0bbfc581022fe6f/6987ea3a5f570f20b4b190ca/obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0bbfc581022fe6f/6987ea3a5f570f20b4b190ca/obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Barack Obama makes his way to Air Force One before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on April 8, 2015.","caption":"President Barack Obama makes his way to Air Force One before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on April 8, 2015.","creditText":"Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/foreign-relations/","name":"Foreign Relations"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3817419/president-obama-phones-cuban-leader-raul-castro/","name":"President Obama Phones Cuban Leader, White House Confirms"}}]}] ```