Freeport, Bahamas – With concerns about strained U.S.-Caribbean relations, Haiti’s escalating violence and regional security topping the agenda, foreign ministers from the Caribbean Community hope to end talks Thursday with a strategy to better position the region to influence its destiny.
The foreign ministers, representing all of the Caribbean Community’s member states except for Haiti, officially opened their talks Wednesday, just days before they expect to join their hemispheric counterparts in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for the Organization of American States’ General Assembly.
An early sign of the effectiveness of a unified Caribbean voice could come during the OAS meeting, where 14 members of the bloc – Haiti’s membership has been on hold since the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide – have pledged to support Albert Ramdin, a little-known Surinamese diplomat, for the No. 2 position in the OAS.
Ramdin was in attendance at the this year’s gathering, known as the Council for Foreign and Community Relations of the Caribbean Community, taking note of the foreign policy issues leaders say are pressing to them.
“The unified position we adopted in supporting one candidate for the OAS secretary-general gives proof to the fact that CARICOM as a region remains united, and is well-positioned for strategic influence in the matters of importance to the region,” said Bahamas Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell, who hosted the conference at the Westin at Our Lucaya Beach and Golf Resort, and took over as the group’s new chairman on Wednesday.
The OAS assembly is just one of several upcoming international forums where the Caribbean community, known as CARICOM, is looking to assert itself in hopes of influencing policy decisions both within and outside the hemisphere.
Another is at the United Nations, where talks are under way to reform the Security Council by expanding its membership.
“None of the models are likely to give our countries a significant place in the scheme of things, and in any case our interest is not only in the Security Council reform but United Nations reform … all of the bodies,” said CARICOM Secretary-General Edwin Carrington. “We need some reform so that they will take into account the interests of our countries. That is the problem we are battling.”
The ministers also agreed to come up with a plan to ensure that several U.S. aircraft used in drug-trafficking interdictions remain in the region for use in the Caribbean’s ongoing war on drugs.
On Thursday the group expects to tackle ways to improve its relations with the United States, how to get its issues on the OAS agenda and what to do about Haiti.
Haiti’s deteriorating state was touched on at Wednesday’s opening session. CARICOM leaders said that despite strained relations between CARICOM and Haiti, CARICOM remains committed to the Haitian cause and helping with the country’s upcoming elections.
“We have recognized that as a regional, historical partner of Haiti we have a duty to play a role in international efforts to assist in contributing to its reconstruction, such as the U.N. Stabilization Mission,” said outgoing council chairwoman and Barbados Foreign Affairs Minister Billie Miller.
Miller said the Haitian crisis “has been one of the most complex and revealing tests of our foreign policy management and of our Caribbean solidarity. … The deadlocks, strained relations and misunderstandings which developed in the hemisphere as this crisis escalated still persist,” she said. “I believe that we have made and will continue to make our progress in our response to the dire situation, which continues in Haiti.”
By Jacqueline Charles, Knight Ridder Newspapers
