(VOVworld) – US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez in Washington on Monday, US officials said.

Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla attends a meeting at the European Commission in Brussels June 9, 2015. (Photo: REUTERS/ EMMANUEL DUNAND)

This will be the first US visit by Cuba’s top diplomat after a half-century freeze. State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Friday that Kerry will host Rodriguez at the State Department after the Cuban official leads the formal reopening of the Cuban embassy on July 20. Kirby said the agenda would cover areas of possible cooperation, such as global health, the Cuban people’s expanded access to telecommunications, and normalization process. Kerry and Rodriguez will meet later and hold a news conference.