(CARICOM Secretariat)     The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on Wednesday welcomed  Ambassador Joaquín de Arístegui as the new Plenipotentiary Representative of the Kingdom of Spain to CARICOM.

The accreditation ceremony took place at the Headquarters of the CARICOM Secretariat where the Ambassador presented his letters of credence to CARICOM’s Secretary-General (ag) Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite.

Ambassador de Arístegui’s accreditation comes less than a month after Miguel Ángel Moratinos, the former Foreign Minister of Spain met with CARICOM Foreign Ministers in Grenada in the margins of the recent Inter-Sessional meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government. At that meeting, Mr. Moratinos presented his candidature for the post of Director General of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) to the Ministers.

In accepting the credentials of the Plenipotentiary representative, Ambassador Applewhaite said that the people and governments of CARICOM held the people and government of Spain in great esteem for the genuine friendship that long historical ties, deep cultural affinity and dynamic technical cooperation had engendered.

The Acting Secretary-General recalled that the long history between CARICOM and Spain had been re-energised in 1999 through the First CARICOM-Spain Summit in Trinidad and Tobago, which has been followed by three others as well as two meetings of the CARICOM-Spain Joint Commission which had been established by that First Summit.

She noted that “practical projects” had come out of the Agreement on Scientific and Technical Cooperation between the Kingdom of Spain and CARICOM signed at the 1999 Summit and they had “positively affected” the people of CARICOM Member States.

Even as she welcomed the new Spanish Plenipotentiary Representative to the Caribbean Community, Ambassador Applewhaite expressed “deep-felt appreciation” to former Ambassador of Spain to CARICOM, Jesus Silva, whose boundless energy and enthusiasm towards CARICOM-Spain relations, she added, “was both contagious and productive.”

Further, Ambassador Applewhaite noted the Region’s “deep appreciation” to the people and Government of Spain for its continued support in facilitating the re-development of Haiti.