– Colombia urges CARICOM
PRESIDENT of Colombia Mr. Juan Manuel Santos has encouraged Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to look to the South, even as he acknowledged that the South had to “look to those States that shine like pearls in the sea that unites our continent.” In remarks during an audience last Friday with the Heads of Government of CARICOM at their Thirty-Second Meeting in Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis, the Colombian President said that he brought messages of unity and prosperity and announced that Colombia wanted to give special importance and priority to the needs of the Caribbean Region.

Bearing in mind the slogan of the Sixth Summit of the Americas (SOA), ‘Connecting the Americas: Partners for Prosperity’ which his country hosts next year – President Santos underscored that the Summit was a partnership at the highest political level to find solutions to the problems the continent and islands of the Americas were facing.
“It is a partnership… to deliver better living conditions to the peoples of our hemisphere. And, in that context, Colombia wants to give special importance and priority to the needs of the Caribbean Region,” he told the CARICOM Heads of Government.

While acknowledging the historic role the North has played in the Region, President Santos noted the difficulties being faced by that part of the world and pointed out that the Sixth SOA would serve the purpose of further developing hemispheric relations.

“We must understand that the Summit of the Americas is a unique and privileged space for dialogue that brings together all the Heads of State and Government of the hemisphere. In that sense, it is an important forum with opportunities for agreement and understanding,” he pointed out.

The Summit, the Colombian President said, could be an ideal scenario for CARICOM to set out its priorities on matters such as the reduction of poverty and inequality, solutions to combat the insecurity that affects the citizenry and the threats posed to the stability of democracies by transnational crime; and the effects of natural disasters. (Caricom Secretariat)