Obama and Raúl Castro

Obama and Raúl Castro Meet in Pivotal Moment in U.S.-Cuba Thaw

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS

President Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba appeared together on Monday morning, kicking off the first official talks between their two governments after decades of Cold War hostility.

The discussions, to take place after a welcoming ceremony at the Palace of the Revolution, are viewed as a pivotal moment in the thaw that Mr. Obama and Mr. Castro agreed to set in motion 15 months ago.

The leaders are expected to discuss a path toward normalizing relations, and the profound differences that still divide them economically and politically, including the United States trade embargo on Cuba and human rights issues.

The encounter is their third face-to-face meeting since they announced the policy shift in December 2014. They met and shook hands in April 2015 at a summit meeting of Western Hemisphere nations in Panama City, and they spoke in September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, when Mr. Obama told Mr. Castro he would like to visit this year if the conditions were right.

The choreography of the session has preoccupied the American and Cuban governments for weeks. Both are determined to showcase a new dynamic of friendship and engagement while insisting they have conceded none of their principles.

White House officials were still not sure in the final hours before the meeting whether there would be a question-and-answer session with journalists afterward, a standard element of Mr. Obama’s visits with foreign leaders but one to which Mr. Castro does not submit.

American officials said Mr. Obama planned to raise the issue of Cuba’s repressive tactics, on display in the days leading up to the president’s visit as the government detained dissidents who could cause a diversion from the official script.

The Cubans, accustomed to exerting tight control over everything that happens on the island, have spent weeks admonishing citizens against disrupting Mr. Obama’s visit or questioning government authority during the trip.

Before he met with Mr. Castro, the president laid a wreath at the memorial to José Martí, a journalist and poet whose ideals are invoked with zeal in both Miami and Havana.

In the afternoon, Mr. Obama will attend an event with American business leaders and Cuban entrepreneurs who are making money outside the state-run system.

Later, Mr. Obama and the first lady, Michelle Obama, were to return to the palace for a state dinner hosted by Mr. Castro.