Colombia and Caricom seek greater cooperation in the Caribbean

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Colombia and the countries of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) will hold this Friday in Barranquilla the II Colombia-Caricom Ministerial Summit to strengthen trade, investment, cooperation, and cultural ties.

At the level of foreign ministers, the first of these meetings was held in June 2019 in Cartagena de Indias. For this second meeting, Barranquilla, capital of the department of Atlántico and the main city of the Colombian Caribbean, was chosen as the venue.

Tomorrow’s meeting, which Colombian President Iván Duque will install, seeks to consolidate a space for dialogue with the member countries to strengthen relations with the Caribbean.

The Caribbean Community (Caricom) comprises Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The working session will be conducted by Vice President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucía Ramírez, who highlighted the Government’s strategy “to strengthen Colombia’s presence in the Greater Caribbean, not only because of its condition as a Caribbean country but also because of its conviction of the importance of positioning our country as a relevant actor in a strategic scenario”.

“Since the beginning of the Government we have assumed as a foreign policy priority to have a greater presence in the forums in which Colombia participates as a full member or as an Associated State, such as the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) and Caricom, respectively,” the foreign minister told Efe.

At the first Colombia-Caricom ministerial meeting two years ago, the foreign ministers agreed to cooperate on issues of joint interest such as increasing trade, transportation, and sports.

Colombia and Caricom have a trade agreement signed in 1994, which has not been fully developed, so they decided to update it.

They also agreed to create a Caricom-Colombia joint commission as a technical scenario to follow up on all the decisions made in that instance.

With this meeting, Colombia closes a week of intense diplomatic activity. On Wednesday, January 26, it hosted the summit of the Pacific Alliance and today the summit of the Forum for the Progress and Integration of South America (Prosur).

With information from EFE