STATEMENT DELIVERED BY THE HON. FREDERICK A. MITCHELL,
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE OF THE COMMONWEALTH
OF THE BAHAMAS, AND OUT-GOING CHAIRMAN OF THE CARICOM COUNCIL FOR
FOREIGN AND COMMUNITY RELATION (COFCOR), AT THE NINTH MEETING OF
THE COFCOR, MONDAY 24 APRIL, 2006, ST GEORGE’S,
GRENADA.
Mr. Chairman, the Honourable Elvin Nimrod,
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Grenada
Colleague Ministers,
Rev. Osbert James
Secretary General of the Caribbean Community
Excellencies and other Government representatives
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
I am honoured to address you today as the Outgoing
Chairman of the Council on Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR). I
am pleased to be in Grenada. I wish to thank Minister Elvin Nimrod and
the Government of Grenada for the excellent hospitality and arrangements
which they have put in place for me and my delegation. I want to also
congratulate the Government and people of Grenada for the remarkable
recovery which they have made after the two devastating hurricanes hit
this country over the past two years ago. The signs of progress and
recovery and enterprise are everywhere, and I will take this welcome
news back to my country that Grenada is back.
The Bahamas assumed the Chair of COFCOR on 1 June
2005 just days before the Thirty-fifth meeting of the General Assembly
of the Organisation of American States held last June in Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida. It was our country’s honour to host that meeting in Freeport,
our second city that itself was just recovering from a hurricane. It has
been an eventful year.
Some Ministers might recall that when the came to The
Bahamas last year, they landed right in the middle of a bruising
domestic public debate about The Bahamas and its relationship with
CARICOM and whether we ought to become part of the Single Market and
Economy. The issue has now been decided with the Agreement that The
Bahamas signed in February at the Inter Sessional Meeting of Heads of
Government which allowed the provisions of the revised Treaty of
Chaguaramas to enter into force, but with The Bahamas continuing only in
the political and specialised Organs of the Community and not the Single
Market and Economy arrangements. Please accept our thanks to all member
Governments for their understanding on this issue as it relates to The
Bahamas. Please also know that The Bahamas remains committed to regional
cooperation. Congratulations are in order all around for the remarkable
accomplishment of the launching of the Single Market on 1st
January of this year.
As we look back over the year, we can all be proud of
the accomplishments of this body for, and on behalf of our respective
peoples. Our role as the principal advisors to our Heads of Government
has helped to chart our nations through some difficult times. The sign
of our success is that there is peace and stability in all of our
societies. There has also been economic progress despite the setbacks
brought on by natural disasters. We all remain at peace with our
neighbours, and where the national borders of our members were
threatened by anachronistic and contrived claims, we have stood up for
our members, and reaffirmed their right to existing borders. We must not
remain complacent.
The recent assassination of the Minister of
Agriculture of Guyana shows how watchful we must be to guard against the
forces of darkness that also threaten to disrupt the public order and
the rule of law. Our collective sympathies and those of the Government
and people of The Bahamas go out to the Government and people of Guyana
and especially to our colleague Minister Rudy Insanally.
Haiti is about to take its seat once more in the
Councils of CARICOM. This is a pleasing development, following the
difficulties that ensued following the departure of the then President
of Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide in February 2004. As the Chair of
COFCOR, I led a delegation along with the representatives of the CARICOM
Secretariat to the United Nations in March where we met with
President-elect Rene Preval. During the next year, one our greatest
challenges will be ensuring that all is done to reincorporate Haiti
properly within our Councils. My own feeling is that an early mission by
Foreign Ministers to Haiti should be sought and that we ought to seek
the sanction of Heads to do so with dispatch.
It was also my honour to have assisted in maintaining
and enhancing of the quality of the continuing conversation with so many
of our friends and allies. Our relationship with the United States, the
closest developed neighbour to the region improved over the past year.
There were three meetings with the U.S. Secretary of State, most
recently a dedicated meeting in Nassau in March. Trade Ministers have
now met the Trade Representative of the United States. It is left now to
follow up on those meetings. One of the meetings that I believe should
be held is a meeting of National Security Ministers with the Homeland
Security Chief of the United States. My own view is these contacts with
the U.S. Government should be regular, sustained and frequent so that
the quality and nature of the conversations become easier. The optics of
this for many our peoples are important.
We should not however neglect our other friends
whether they are in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia and
most importantly in Africa. In fact, my view is that as Minister Nimrod
plots our course over the next year, I have no doubt that there will be
a continued deepening of the relationships with all of our friends.
Of special importance is the proposed Conference on
the Future of the Caribbean to be held in Washington in
June 2007.
