Communist-led Cuba bolstered its regional position on Sunday by hosting for the first time a summit of leaders of the 15-nation Caribbean Community in which it only has observer status.
Caribbean heads of state called for the “immediate lifting” of U.S. economic sanctions imposed four decades ago on Cuba to oust President Fidel Castro after he led a 1959 revolution.
In a statement issued at the end of the weekend meeting, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) backed Cuba’s efforts to join the Cotonou Agreement, a European Union cooperation accord with former colonies in the Africa/Caribbean/Pacific group of countries.
Castro announced that Cuba would reapply for membership of the ACP-EU accord. A previous request made in 2000 ran up against European conditions regarding human rights.
The Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and former African, Caribbean and Pacific colonies, offers development aid and preferential trade terms to them.
“We remain committed in support of Cuba’s desire to accede to the Cotonou Agreement,” said the president of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, whose country currently heads Caricom.
Caribbean leaders signed a commitment to put into effect on January 1, 2003, a Caricom trade agreement with Cuba, which has so far only been ratified by four of its members.
The pact aims at expanding Caricom trade with Cuba, which at present amounts to only $120 million a year.
The leaders discussed tourism, the top hard currency earner for many of the islands, including Cuba, which has battled economic crisis since the demise of its Cold War sponsor the Soviet Union.
CONCERN OVER HAITI
Concern over political instability and mounting tensions in Haiti, the hemisphere’s poorest country and Caricom’s newest member as of July, dominated talks on Sunday morning.
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who faces criticism at home over violence allegedly committed by his supporters and a disintegrating economy, briefed the meeting on the crisis.
In a statement on Haiti, Caricom called for the immediate establishment of a provisional electoral council to allow for new elections in the first half of 2003 to end the political stalemate. It also called on Aristide’s opponents to cooperate.
Caricom urged international financial institutions to “relaunch” aid programs for Haiti.
Delegates from The Bahamas, whose Prime Minister, Perry Christie, is the first Bahamian head of state to visit Cuba, said they were worried about Haiti because their country was on the path of Haitian boat-people trying to reach the United States.
CUBA HELPS FIGHT AIDS
Cuba offered to set up a medical training center in one of the Caricom states to help fight AIDS in the Caribbean, which has the world’s second highest HIV infection rate after sub-Saharan Africa.
St. Kitts/Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas said the worsening AIDS situation was “alarming” and Cuban medical aid to its neighbors was making a “significant difference.”
Castro said some 1,000 Cuban doctors and health workers were stationed in Caricom-island states, and offered to double the number.
Cuba, the largest Caribbean island, has sought to join Caricom, but has only been admitted as an observer.
“The climate is more favorable now,” a Bahamian official said.
Thirteen of Caricom’s heads of state and one vice-president attended the summit in Havana, marking the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Cuba and the Caribbean.
Castro said Caribbean nations played a key role in helping Cuba end isolation by the United States in the hemisphere.
Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago led the way by establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1972, despite U.S. opposition.
“This courageous decision adopted by small, newly independent countries in a hostile environment and under great pressures, was a fundamental step in breaking the diplomatic and commercial blockade of Cuba in the region,” Castro said.
By Anthony Boadle, Reuters
