Bahamas to Host CARICOM/US Conference on Future Of
Region
The Bahamas is to host the Foreign Ministers of
CARICOM and the Secretary of State of the United States, if plans come
off as agreed in New York City during the meeting of the Foreign
Ministers of CARICOM and the U.S. Secretary of State.
A working group of Ambassadors in Washington, chaired by The
Bahamas and including Barbados and Grenada, will settle the details of a
meeting to be held in Nassau on the future of the CARICOM Region.
It is expected to include academics, the private business sector
and the Diaspora of the Region in the United States.
The meeting was first mooted by the U.S. Secretary
of State in June at the OAS General Assembly in Fort Lauderdale in her
first meeting with Foreign Ministers of the Region in her position as
Secretary of State. It was
agreed that the Ministers and the Secretary would follow up their
discussions with meetings in the margins of the General Assembly at the
U.N. That meeting took
place in a suite at the Waldorf Astoria in New York on Wednesday, 14
September 2005, following the opening of the 60th anniversary
summit at the U.N.
Another item on the agenda was Haiti and the help
and support which CARICOM will give to the electoral process.
The other subject of the meeting was the state of disaster
preparedness in the Region, and the question of whether or not there
would be an impact on the ability of the U.S. to respond to a natural
disaster in the Region. The
U.S. Secretary of State indicated that there is still the capacity of
the U.S. to respond to any regional disaster.
Mr. Mitchell said that he was pleased that The
Bahamas and CARICOM were able to achieve all objectives for the meeting.
“It was a positive meeting, part of what I call a continuing
conversation with the United States which is the main engine of the
economies of the Region”. “The
meeting was friendly,” said the Minister, “but business-like.”
The Foreign Minister also met separately with
Haiti’s Interim Prime Minister Gerard LaTortue on September 14th.
On Thursday, 15th September, the
Minister met first with Heads of Government of the Caribbean Region on
behalf of Prime Minister Christie on issues relating to the fight
against HIV/AIDS, in a meeting hosted by Prime Minister Owen Arthur of
Barbados. This was
followed by a meeting with the Prime Minister of Canada and the Heads of
Government of the CARICOM Region. Mr.
Mitchell represented the Prime Minister at that meeting as well.
-- end
--
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
19th September, 2005
FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET – Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell, centre right; and US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, centre right; shown after a meeting
of CARICOM Foreign Ministers in New York City Wednesday during the 60th
anniversary celebrations of the United Nations. It was agreed during the meeting that The Bahamas would host
a conference of CARICOM Foreign Ministers and the US Secretary of State
on the future of the Caribbean region.
Minister Mitchell is the chairman of CARICOM’s Council for
Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR).
Photo: UNGA/Michael Gross
|
