(CARICOM Secretariat) THE Caribbean and the United Kingdom have agreed to establish a new and improved strategic partnership to promote prosperity growth and development within both regions.
This is in keeping with the spirit of cooperation and with the theme of the Seventh UK-Caribbean Forum – Sustainable Growth Toward Prosperity – which opened in Grenada on Friday evening.
The spirit of the new strategic partnership is reflected in the 31-point action plan which was issued at the end of the two-day political dialogue on Sunday afternoon.
The action plan outlines four major areas of cooperation: economic resilience, security, climate change and sustainable development and foreign policy.
With that outcome document, foreign ministers agreed to build economic resilience through development of practical mechanisms that will boost growth in investment, employment, production and trade opportunities that would redound to the benefit of both regions.
The UK agreed to support the efforts of the Caribbean in improving their food security through efficient production and distribution measures.
Perhaps the most welcome news for the Caribbean is the agreement by the UK to re-open dialogue on issues relating to the Air Passenger Duty (APD) which is threatening the Caribbean’s tourism sector. The UK agreed that in the spirit of cooperation and in the context of the importance of tourism to the economic development of the Caribbean, it will continue dialogue with a view to assisting the region in mitigating any deleterious effects that the application of the tax may have on its economies.
The foreign ministers also agreed to develop effective coordination mechanisms to help advance the fight against drugs and international crime.
In the area of climate change and sustainable development, the UK noted that the Caribbean already had a very strong voice in the international community and is poised to “give value for money.” Therefore foreign ministers agreed on the urgency of closing mitigation gaps to bring global temperatures well below 2oC or below 1.5oC above preindustrial levels.
As it relates to foreign policy, the foreign ministers agreed to work together in international fora to tackle pressing socio-political and security issues which threaten international peace and security.