Community (CARICOM) leaders will be discussing CARICOM- US foreign relations at the 38th meeting of the conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community being held on July 4-6, 2017.
The discussion comes in lieu of new foreign policies articulated by US president Donald Trump.
In a news release today in Grenada where the summit will be held, CARICOM Secretary General Irwin LaRocque said.
“Our foreign affairs ministers will be having an encounter in the margins of the meeting here in Grenada this week with the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Thomas Alfred “Tom” Shannon Jr specifically to address CARICOM US relations and of course I am sure out foreign ministers will then report to the heads”.
LaRocque also said that the region is “very encouraged by the recent passage of the United States-Caribbean Strategic Engagement Act,” which is aimed at consolidating Washington’s engagement with the Caribbean.
Under the United States-Caribbean Strategic Engagement Act, the US Secretary of State and the US Agency for International Development will devise a multi-year strategy on issues of concern to the region, such as security, energy, diplomacy and increased access to educational opportunities.
“I am very much aware that the State Department has published the first strategy…so all of that will form the backdrop to the discussions”.
But LaRocque said that the region continues to be “concerned about the cuts in funds to the State Department do not impact us in CARICOM.
“We are currently receiving a significant amount of resources, individual member states and collectively under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI), we trust that the partnership would continue and urge that the funding levels do not decrease.
Source-CMC
