The United States and Cuba have wrapped the first round of historic talks in Havana. The two sides met as part of the effort to restore full diplomatic ties for the first time in more than half a century. The head of the U.S. delegation, Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson, said while progress was made, there is no timeline for the reopening of a U.S. embassy in Havana.

Roberta Jacobson: “I can’t tell you exactly when that will happen. We are all working through the issues as quickly as we can, and we will do that as soon as we can resolve all of the functional issues that we need to address. On the issue of human rights, the president has spoken to the issue, and certainly that issue remains central to our conversations. We’ve made clear that we will continue to raise that issue, and I did discuss that issue today.”

Jacobson is the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat to enter Cuba in nearly 40 years. Josefina Vidal, head of U.S. affairs at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, said Cuba needs several outstanding issues addressed, including the lifting of the embargo and Cuba’s removal from the list of countries sponsoring international terrorism.

Josefina Vidal: “For our part in the process of these discussions, it’s a challenge to say that we have managed to re-establish diplomatic relations between Cuba and the U.S. while our country unfairly remains on the U.S. list of international state sponsors of terrorism. We also say that in order for us to open embassies, it is first necessary to resolve the banking situation faced by the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, which has gone almost a year without services.”

President Obama urged Congress to lift the embargo during his State of the Union address earlier this week.