President Obama announced the U.S. will re-establish its diplomatic relations with Cuba, and open economic and travel ties between the two nations after a decades-long embargo.

The announcement was made by President Obama at the White House on Wednesday and said its changing relationship with Cuba is "the most significant change in U.S. policy toward Cuba in more than 50 years."

"Decades of U.S. isolation of Cuba have failed to accomplish our objective of empowering Cubans to build an open and democratic country. At times, longstanding U.S. policy towards Cuba has isolated the United States from regional and international partners, constrained our ability to influence outcomes throughout the Western Hemisphere, and impaired the use of the full range of tools available to the United States to promote positive change in Cuba," said Obama.

"Though this policy has been rooted in the best of intentions, it has had little effect -- today, as in 1961, Cuba is governed by the Castros and the Communist party.

Obama added, "We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. It does not serve America's interests, or the Cuban people, to try to push Cuba toward collapse. We know from hard-learned experience that it is better to encourage and support reform than to impose policies that will render a country a failed state. We should not allow U.S. sanctions to add to the burden of Cuban citizens we seek to help."

White House officials said Obama and Cuba's Raul Castro spoke by phone Tuesday for more than 45 minutes -- the first substantive conversation between U.S. and Cuban leaders since 1961.

The call followed more than a year of secret discussions between U.S. and Cuban officials, taking place in Canada and the Vatican, and included personal involvement by Pope Francis, according to The Associated Press.

"This is going to do absolutely nothing to further human rights and democracy in Cuba," said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida. But, he added, it "potentially goes a long way in providing the economic lift that the Castro regime needs to become permanent fixtures in Cuba for generations to come."

The deal was cemented by the release of USAID contractor Alan Gross, and an intelligence asset held in Cuba for 20 years, and the freeing of three Cubans jailed in the U.S, formerly known as members of the Cuban Five, said the news outlet.

The Cuban Five, also known as the Miami Five -- Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and René González -- are five Cuban intelligence officers convicted in Miami of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, acting as an agent of a foreign government, and other illegal activities in the United States.

In 2001, the Cuban government acknowledged, after denying the fact for nearly three years, that the five men were intelligence agents. It says they were spying on Miami's Cuban exile community, not the U.S. government.

One of the groups fighting for decades for the release of the Cuban Five is IFCO, Pastors for Peace.

"We at IFCO are elated to learn that Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino and Antonio Guerrero have been released from US prisons in conjunction with Cuba's release of US AID Contractor Alan Gross," Gail Walker, executive director, IFCO, Pastors for Peace said.