The Government is to review the Bahamas’ position on the Caribbean Community’s Single Market and Economy, Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell said Monday.
Addressing members of the diplomatic corps during their annual Christmas luncheon at the British Colonial Hilton, Mr. Mitchell confirmed that the Bahamas “is reviewing the framework for co-operation within CARICOM…an increasingly important relationship.”
And, “significant” high-level talks with the Haitian government begin in Nassau on December 19, he said
The Government has promised that by July 2003, when the next substantive Caribbean Heads of Government meeting takes place, to “define” its position on the Caribbean single market and economy.
The Bahamas is not a part of the trade protocols of the CARICOM treaty. “This has been an outstanding matter for some time,” Mr Mitchell told consuls, honorary consuls, and ambassadors. “We think it is time to bring it to some finality.
“The advice we have received by a very detailed report is the fact that entering the Caribbean single market and economy may be a good and useful experience having regard to the fact that we are engaged in the WTO and FTAA processes.
“This is being studied. The Prime Minister has promised that our position will be definitively defined July 2003.”
The Bahamas expects “significant talks” with Haiti next week, said Mr Mitchell who accompanied Prime Minister Perry G Christie and Minister of Public Works Bradley Roberts to Cuba on the weekend.
While in Havana he met with Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Foreign Minister Antonio. It was agreed that the talks between Haiti and the Bahamas take place next week Thursday and Friday.
“I am exceptionally pleased about that,” said Mr Mitchell.
The visit to Cuba had an “important side benefit,” he said, “and that was the fact that there was an ad hoc meeting of the Caribbean Heads of Government to be briefed on the situation in Haiti directly by its President.
“A communiqu� was issued by the CARICOM Heads of Government urging the democratic process to be continued in Haiti and for both sides in Haiti to get the process of elections on tract, urging restraint and support for democratic mechanisms in Haiti. The Haitian government expressed its thanks to CARICOM and Heads of Government for their assistance to its country.”
When he became Minister of Foreign Affairs in May this year, he sought to reassure the world and the Bahamian public of “the commitment of the Government at its highest political level being active and co-operative participants in international affairs.
“This meant a proactive approach, in our view, to foreign policy and to actually engage the international community at home and abroad.”
Mr Mitchell said he was “particularly interested” in engaging the community of honorary consuls.
“Because we are a small community resident ambassadors would not be as numerous as those of larger countries,” he said. “And so the honorary consulate corps has an important role to play in being the eyes and ears of the nations they represent and in acting as their intermediaries between their governments and the Government of the Bahamas.
“I am trying to engage each honorary consular in a personal way to let them know how much we value the support and help and assistance that the corps provide to the Bahamas.”
As part of the “proactive steps” that the Government tried to take was the appointment of a Select Committee of the Parliament on Foreign Affairs, he said.
“I hope that in the coming weeks you would find it possible to meet with members of the committee,” he told them.
“The idea of this bi-partisan committee is to be proactive in examining foreign affairs issues and in trying to allow the Bahamian public the opportunity to comment upon and to air various foreign policy issues and to have a point of dialogue about the direction in which the Government ought to go.
“My approach is that the Opposition spokesman on foreign affairs, the Leader of the Opposition and the now former Prime Minister of the Bahamas should have access, so far as convention allows, to the policy deliberations and decisions of the Government so that both the Opposition and the Government are at one when it comes to foreign policy issues.”
The Government also intends to create a Council on Foreign Relations, he said. The policy work is being done by the Permanent Secretary and the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The chairperson is to be announced shortly.
During the year new appointments have taken place in the Bahamas’ offices overseas. Dr. Eugene Newry is the new envoy to Haiti, the new Consul General to New York is broadcaster Ed Bethel, and the new Consul General to Miami is Mrs. Alma Adams. Within the week the Ambassador designate to the United Nations and the new High Commissioner to Canada will be named, he said.
“I wish to commend highly our ambassadors and consuls general who will shortly be ending their tours of duty abroad, and who would have rendered sterling service to the government and the people of the Bahamas,” said Mr. Mitchell.
Ambassador Sidney Poitier continues to serve as the non-resident Ambassador to Japan. He has also been appointed Ambassador to UNESCO which is headquartered in Paris.
“We think this is an important addition to his work having regard to his being the pre-eminent Bahamian in so many things, not the least being his profession as an actor, and therefore the cultural part of UNESCO.
The Ambassador to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, is to be announced soon.
Since the Bahamas became an independent nation, it has enjoyed “close and friendly relations with all countries…Our close bi-lateral relationship with the United States, our dear neighbour, is an excellent and highly valued one,” Mr. Mitchell said.
“This is a time of challenge and a time of opportunity for the Bahamas in international affairs. It is the intention of the government to reinforce the gains that the Bahamas has made in this area and to respond effectively to changes taking place in the global system.”
By Gladstone Thurston, Bahamas Information Services
