The chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew Wednesday held talks with Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit on issues ahead of the February 24-27 CARICOM summit to be held in St. Kitts and Nevis.
‘I came to meet with senior Prime Minister Skerrit to discuss matters of importance with respect to regional integration, matters that affect the region specifically CARICOM ahead of the 50th regular meeting to be held in Basseterre,’ the St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister told reporters.
Drew has in the past visited several other CARICOM countries and as part of this regional outreach is visiting Dominica and Grenada holding talks with Skerrit and Prime MInister Dickon Mitchell of Grenada.
The engagements form part of Drew’s commitment to direct, face-to-face dialogue with regional leaders, aimed at strengthening coordination, deepening consensus, and ensuring that priority issues affecting CARICOM are effectively ventilated ahead of the summit.
‘We discussed a number of pertinent issues,’ Prime Minister Drew said, adding that he believes the discussions ‘give great hope to the advancement of CARICOM and we look forward to strengthening it, making it even more relevant to the people of the region’. Listen to audio
Drew said that some of the major issues to be discussed at the summit will deal with the efforts at advancing the regional integration process, including trade, foreign policy ‘and how do we advance CARICOM and make it relevant to our people’.
He said he work of the Barbados-based Regional Security System (RSS), the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) will also be discussed.
In recent times, the Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has been critical of the integration movement following her country’s support for the United States war on drugs in the Caribbean.
Last December, Persad-Bissessar said the regional organisation was ‘not a reliable partner at this time’ and that every sovereign state must be prepared to accept the consequences of its foreign and domestic policy choices as she defended the United States’ announcement of partial entry restrictions on nationals of Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica.
She said also that the organisation’s support for the then Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela, which has been accused of human rights violations and threats against CARICOM members, further undermines its credibility.
But Prime Minister Drew, who earlier this month met with Prime Minister Persad Bissessar, reiterated the position that CARICOM is made up of many different sovereign countries ‘and we seek to reach consensus on what is said.
‘I have always said, no chairman is the president or prime minister of CARICOM. We seek to bring our leaders together and get consensus. So what comes out would be the consensus from CARICOM.
However, at the meeting these things will be discussed as they are always discussed, but more acutely, especially with the geopolitical situation we are facing. But I ant to say to the people of the region, part of my visit is to engage each leader, face to face, eyeball to eyeball so that we can really invigorate CARICOM with what is needed at this particular time.’
Prime Minister Drew recalled a statement made by Prime Minster Skerrit during their discussions in which he said that the principles upon which CARICOM was founded are needed now more than ever,
‘That has stayed with me .and I think that’s the foundation on which we will approach this meeting. The principles on which CARICOM is built, those principles are needed now more than ever.
But to say to our people we have been through tough times before and any organization that is worth its salt, it is shown when things get tough..that if we can survive the tough days we will survive almost any other day.
‘We are not daunted by the difficulties and challenges. As a matter of fact I think we get tough when times get tough, we are stepping up to the plate so that CARICCOM can respond in a way that will benefit our people and the region’.
Prime Minister Drew acknowledged that the situation is challenging, but added ‘we will work through this challenging time and make CARICOM stronger than it was before.
‘I am very hopeful because I see challenges as opportunities for greater things’.
Prime Minister Skerrit has welcomed Drew’s visit to regional countries ahead of the summit, saying ‘ I think it is good gesture.
‘I think it will allow, certainly for more robust discussions at the heads meeting and better outcomes and I think we are well on our way to achieving this.
‘We look forward to the meetings of the heads, it is a challenging time as your have indicated but we are a family in the Caribbean with challenging times and at every opportunity we have overcome those challenges and the challenges we are going through now we believe we can overcome them,’ Skerrit told reporters.