The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has lost its momentum for several years now, according to President Bharrat Jagdeo, who has urged that the momentum be regained.
“Frankly speaking, CARICOM has lost momentum for a while now, for the past several years,” Jagdeo said, while addressing the Guyana Defence Force’s annual officers’ conference yesterday.
The president, who said that CARICOM will continue to be very important for Guyana, noted that to a large extent the momentum was lost because of the internal problems experienced by many countries, including some devastated by the global economic crisis.
Jagdeo’s comments came while he was praising Guyana’s chairmanship of the Union of South American States (UNASUR), which he said is a huge accomplishment since Guyana is the smallest country to have held the chairmanship. He said that because of this many persons have been asking what will become of CARICOM. “We now speak on behalf of the entire South America. So this is major. We have to make full use of it and this diplomacy helps us on our borders, we are forging stronger relationships with Brazil…” he said.
He said through UNASUR the country has had “serious” discussions with Venezuela that focused “on a whole range of development opportunities outside of the border….”
Jagdeo said that Guyana now has some of the strongest relations with its neighbours than any other time in its history “and that we are probably, in South America, are at our strongest now in our regional diplomacy.”
