ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – Foreign Affairs Minister, E.P Chet Greene says the 15-member regional integration grouping, CARICCOM, is “now at a cross roads” and regional leaders will have to do much more “to fashion responses” to the problem facing the region.
Foreign Affairs Minister, E.P Chet Greene (File Photo)Greene said he wants to see a stronger more united CARICOM to deal with what he described as “head-winds” that are already impacting the region including the rising cost of energy and the ongoing was in the Middle East involving the United States, Israel and Iran.
In addition, he said the Caribbean will have to deal with the policy being adopted by the United States in asking regional countries to accept third-country deportees.
“CARICOM is now at the crossroads; our regional leaders will have to really put their heads together to fashion responses to these headwinds. The issue of Trinidad and Tobago, for instance, not approving the renewal of the contract for the Secretary-General, that in itself is a problem,” Greene said in a radio programme here.
Last week, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said as far as he is concerned, Belizean economist, Dr. Carla Barnett, had been reappointed as the CARICOM Secretary General and that Dominica had supported the decision.
“The issue of the Secretary-General, this has been, I’m not sure why you asked me the question, but this thing has been ventilated in the public domain. I mean, every plate and spoon in the kitchen has been exposed on this matter,” Skerrit told a news conference.
Last month, Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States and the Organization of American States (OAS), Sir Ronald Sanders, urged Barnett to consider tendering her resignation amidst the ongoing controversy surrounding her reappointment to the post.
“If I were the Secretary General of CARICOM and I’m being quite serious here and this had occurred I would have resigned and I would have resigned because I would have said I must not stand in the way of Caribbean integration and the movement forward,” Sir Ronald Sanders said on the state-owned ABS Television.
In March, in a brief statement, the CARICOM chairman and St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, Dr Terrance Drew, said that Barnett had attained the “required majority” from among regional leaders regarding her re-appointment at February’s CARICOM summit held in Basseterre.
But Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who was not present when the vote was taken to reappoint Barnett, who became the eighth CARICOM Secretary General on August 15, 2021, has publicly challenged the reappointment process of the Belizean economist.
She has dismissed a statement issued by Prime Minister Drew in which reiterated that Trinidad and Tobago was not “uninvited” to the retreat where the decision was taken.
Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar has called for the minutes of the retreat meeting, questioning “where’s GS Barnett’s performance appraisal? Where’s the documentation of the 2021 appointment process which is claimed to be the same as the 2026 process..
Greene told radio listeners that “when you look at energy prices and the negotiating and staying in tune with the global movement of energy prices, the Secretary General is important to you.
“If you don’t have some sort of common approaches where all our leaders are channeling their efforts and their voices through a common secretariat, then how will you deal with the problem?”
Regarding the request by Washington for CARICOM states to accept deportees from third countries, he has some concerns about that.
“The issue of the US and their third-country programme, this too requires a common approach from CARICOM and by CARICOM. Already, we are seeing differences in this programme where the US is offering some countries variations to the same programme. “Some countries have insisted that their sovereignties are not necessarily violated, while others have had their sovereignty placed under pressure. So CARICOM has its work
cut out for it. It requires, perhaps, more frequent engagements of the leaders; certainly, a centralized approach or focus on the secretariat and the role of the secretariat in managing various responses to these international issues,” Greene said on the radio programme.
Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica are among CARICOM countries that have been approached by Washington regarding the third-country deportees.
Greene noted that the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) while a smaller unit, faces the same head-winds as CARICOM.
“I really look forward to that opportunity; that time when the leaders will embrace the matters before us and fashion common responses,” said Greene, who was re-appointed foreign minister after Prime Ministers Gaston Browne led his ruling Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) to a convincing 15-2 victory in the April 30 general election.
