By: Dr Carla Barnett
February 21, 2025
I am very pleased to add my welcome to everyone here and online for the Opening Ceremony of our Forty-Eighth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government being held here in Beautiful Barbados.
I thank the Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados and CARICOM Chair, and all Barbadians, for the gracious hospitality and affection which have been extended to Heads of Government, their delegations, and all guests.
We look forward to benefitting from Prime Minister Mottley’s vast experience during her Chairmanship. The Region will recall her expert guidance of CARICOM affairs through the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, during her previous chairmanship in the first half of 2020. We have every confidence in her leadership, especially amidst the current global uncertainties.
I am especially pleased to welcome our Special Guests to this 48th Regular Meeting of the Conference. His Excellency Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, with whom we’ve had several productive exchanges in different forums, including at previous CARICOM Heads of Government Meetings. Her Excellency Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, joins us for her first exchange with the Conference of Heads of Government in the Caribbean. We are very happy to share our signature Caribbean hospitality with you both, and we look forward to hearing from you later this evening.
It is no accident that, as we gather to craft decisions that will advance integration and improve the quality of life of our people, our first official gathering is being held in the national edifice named in honour of the late Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, former Prime Minister of Barbados and former member of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government. Sir Lloyd is remembered as a staunch proponent of regional integration and cooperation, and one of the architects of our integrated development strategy, the CARICOM Single Market and the Economy (CSME).
Under the guidance of Prime Minister Mottley, who has responsibility for the CSME in CARICOM, CSME operations continue to be based in the Secretariat’s Office in Bridgetown. The Community is also strengthened through the work of several of our Associate and Regional Institutions which are also located here.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the focus of this 48th Regular Meeting of the Conference is Strength in Unity: Forging Caribbean Resilience, Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development, highlights the need for renewed and expanded partnerships, and collaboration, as we grapple with existing and emerging uncertainties. The simultaneous global crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution; crime and violence; ongoing military and trade wars, and other global shocks, pose real and present threats to CARICOM countries. It is at times like this that CARICOM’s continuous call for international cooperation, multilateralism, and respect for international law, takes on special significance.
The current global challenges cannot be effectively addressed in splendid isolation. In our Region, which accounts for less than one percent of the global population, we know that if we are to decisively counter and surmount the combined effects of adverse developments, we must redouble collective efforts, pool our combined wisdom, and act on the basis of our fundamental, intrinsic principles.
Collective action, based on those principles, guided our Member States to be among the first to offer assistance and support to those impacted by the record-breaking Hurricane Beryl in July 2024.
Regional commitment, strength and resilience were clearly visible by Grenada, as they hosted the 47th Meeting of the Conference within weeks after Hurricane Beryl caused catastrophic damage, not only to Carriacou and Petit Martinique in Grenada, but also to the Grenadines Islands of St. Vincent and several other Member States, as it trekked across the Caribbean.
In this regard, the Community extends its gratitude to our Immediate Past Chairman, the Prime Minister of Grenada, Honourable Dickon Mitchell, whose determined leadership of CARICOM remained strong, even as he dealt with the crisis of recovery and rebuilding in his own country.
We continue a unified advocacy, and unwavering support and assistance to our sister Member State, Haiti, in the struggle to obtain peace and security. Millions of Haitians are unable to live free from rampant violence, which stands in the way of economic development, and of access to education and health, especially impacting women and children.
Our collective stand for territorial integrity and the rule of law is demonstrated in respect of our Member States, Guyana and Belize, and the State of Palestine, which all 14 of our independent Member States now recognise.
Internally, we are seeking to make our Single Market work more efficiently, by simplifying the process of amendment of the Community’s Rules of Origin, to allow us to more effectively respond in a rapidly changing trade environment. This Meeting is expected to give approval for the changes necessary.
This Meeting will also take account of notable advances in regional food production under the 25 by 2025 strategy, even with the destruction by Hurricane Beryl of agricultural production in several Member States, especially Jamaica. As we move toward 2030, we expect the work begun under the 25 by 2025 initiative to continue, as the food and nutrition security strategy is renewed and revised.
CARICOM’s exemplary and enviable tradition of democracy will be in full evidence throughout this year, when at least eight of our Member States and Associate Member States are expected to go to the polls for general elections.
In that vein, I recognise the Honourable Reuben Meade, Premier of our Member State, Montserrat, who was successful in elections in October 2024; the Honourable Washington Misick, Premier of our Associate Member State, the Turks and Caicos Islands, who was successful earlier this month; and the Honourable David Burt, who won yesterday’s elections in Bermuda. Elections will take place in Belize on March 12, in Suriname on May 25 and in Curacao, our newest Associate Member, on March 21.
This exercise of democracy, and peaceful transfer of power is integral to the tradition and principles of strong governance, and the rule of law, by which CARICOM Member States firmly stand. Where this is threatened, CARICOM’s Good Offices processes are available to assist, and ensure that good governance practices prevail. The CARICOM Secretariat organises electoral observation missions when these are requested, as has already happened for some of the elections to be held this year.
Esteemed colleagues, distinguished guests, we are counting on the active involvement of all CARICOM citizens – our entrepreneurs, our civic leaders, our youth, our indigenous peoples, from The Bahamas in the north, to Belize in the west, to Guyana and Suriname in the south, as well as from the diaspora, regardless of age, colour or creed. The Secretariat has redoubled its efforts to engage with various Community stakeholders and involve them in our work. We have a vibrant group of CARICOM Youth Ambassadors who meet regularly and interact with the Secretariat in a structured way. We are also deepening the engagement with the Caribbean Congress of Labour and civil society groups. We will hear from our young people and some regional stakeholders during this Meeting. These are deliberate steps towards a more inclusive and meaningful integration process.
Ladies and gentlemen, this Meeting is being held against the backdrop of global shifts in priorities. We cannot rely on promises made, nor on traditional assumptions. To meaningfully address economic disparities, empower our citizens, protect the vulnerable, and create worthwhile opportunities for our young people, requires purpose and action.
There is much work to be done as the Region continues to build out the integration process enshrined in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. We anticipate that deliberations and decisions at this Meeting will be driven by commitment and collaboration, grounded in the desire to make our regional integration work for all our citizens.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
(The author is the Secretary General of the CARICOM)
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