The Secretary General of the ACS and the Foreign Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines discuss Strengthening Regional Ties
ACS Secretary General, Rodolfo Sabonge, held a wide ranging and substantive discussion with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Honourable Keisal Peters, touching on the imperative of regional dialogue as a prerequisite for strengthening south-south relations and development cooperation.
The Secretary General congratulated the Minister on her country's successful year-long chairmanship and skilful management of a dynamic diplomatic interaction, all geared towards maintaining the Region as a Zone of Peace 10 years after the first CELAC Declaration to that effect.
They agreed on the need to advance efforts to improve connectivity to enhance people to people connections, but also trade in services, and in this regard, the Secretary General looked forward to the leadership of Prime Minister Gonsalves- lead head of the CARICOM Quasi-cabinet for transport, in piloting a Greater Caribbean connectivity agenda that could leverage public-private partnerships and digital technologies to enhance the Region's competitivity.
Secretary General Sabonge pointed out that the ACS, in collaboration with CAF is conducting a consultancy towards a Greater Caribbean Logistics Integration Programme, the first findings of which are to be presented at the upcoming Supply Chains Conference co-hosted by the Government of Barbados and UNCTAD in May. They discussed the upcoming Ordinary Meeting of the ACS Ministerial Council on May 9, which takes place ahead of the ACS celebration of 30 years since its establishment, by Treaty on 24th July in Cartagena de Indias in Colombia.
Tricia Barrow, ACS Chief Executive Coordinator, was present at the meeting. She looked forward to the maximum participation of the CARICOM sub-group of the ACS in the celebrations being planned given the group's seminal role in the creation of the 25 Member wide Association, which also comprises 10 Associate territories.
The Association of Caribbean States is the organization for consultation, cooperation and concerted action in trade, transport, sustainable tourism and natural disasters in the Greater Caribbean. Its Member States are Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela. Its Associate Members are Aruba, Curacao, (France on behalf of French Guiana, Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin ), Guadeloupe, Martinique, Sint Maarten, (The Netherlands on behalf of Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius ), Turks and Caicos.