Caribbean countries urged to put aside differences and adopt united foreign policy

CARIBBEAN-POLITICS-Caribbean countries urged to put aside differences and adopt united foreign policy

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries were on Friday urged to resolve their differences and present a united foreign policy to the world.

“We have to keep in mind that the world does not see CARICOM and the Caribbean Community members as single countries any more, it is a region. They are looking at CARICOM as a sub region of 15 member states,” said Ambassador Albert Ramdin, the Assistant Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS).

Ramdin told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the region needed to resolve its differences over the China-Taiwan recognition issue.

“In that context we have to face the realities at this point in the world. China is an emerging power, India is an emerging power, and it makes sense for all CARICOM countries to take account of that,” he said.

"So while from a domestic prospective and from sovereignty prospective you would like to keep your foreign policy within your own context of interest and objectives, I don’t want to say that countries will lose their sovereignty but there is a different way of expressing them, not any more at a national level but expressing sovereignty at a regional level.

“I think it is in the interest of all to work towards the common foreign policy,” he said.

Ramdin echoed a similar for call for unity made by Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer at the meeting of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) that is scheduled to end here on Friday.

COFCOR is meeting against the backdrop of concerns raised by Dominica's decision to join the Venezuela-led Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) that Caracas is pushing as an alternative to the United States-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas (GTAA).

“ALBA came into being because of the differences of those political leaders in terms of the agenda - economic agenda, the trade agenda and the orientation of it,” Ramdin said.

“The ALBA looked much more at a social agenda to be carried out and development issues and the question is whether that is what is going to survive. So you can join an Alba but whether that is the most and the primary option for a single economic space in the Americas is still a question,” he said.

Ramdin said he would not judge Dominica or any other country’s decision to join ALBA, but noted “I think it’s important that collective an analysis should be made”.

But he said that despite the differences, there is still a good platform for the region to build a single foreign policy while ensuring that whatever positions adopted it would take into consideration the national and the region’s best interests.

CMC/fw/pr/08