David Jessop

A little over a week ago the first ministerial forum between China and the Community of Latin American States (CELAC) took place.

The announcement in mid-December by President Obama and President Castro that Cuba and the US are moving to normalise relations has resulted in speculation about what this may mean for the Caribbean’s tourism sector.

Long-term Caribbean security and defence policy and its relationship to foreign policy are issues rarely written about or commented on in the Caribbean media.

Two days before Christmas, the Saudi Oil Minister, Ali al-Nami, made a statement that is likely to change geo-politics and the face of the world economy in 2015.

On December 16, something quite extraordinary happened. President Obama and President Castro spoke on the phone for nearly an hour.

A little over a week ago Britain and its Overseas Territories held their annual Joint Ministerial Council in London.

The news that all citizens of St Kitts-Nevis wishing to travel to Canada will from now on require a visa, and that subsequently the St Kitts government announced it is to recall a number of passports, ought to cause pause for thought across the region about economically valuable, but reputationally risky, citizenship-by-investment schemes.

On December 8, the fifth Cuba-Caricom summit will take place In Havana.

In November 2015 the Commonwealth will have to choose a new Secretary General.

In a few weeks’ time in Lima, Peru, the twentieth session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will take place.

In the heart of London, observed daily by tens of thousands of passers-by, is a large picture of Sir Shridath Ramphal, the Cari-bbean’s elder statesman.

On the face of it, the collapse in global oil prices would seem to be good news for the Caribbean.

About ten days ago some 600 invited participants from the United Kingdom’s Caribbean Diaspora gathered at a venue near the British Parliament.

Four weeks ago, this column urged the Caribbean to begin to think the unthinkable.

The first thing to be said about the ebola crisis is that the region should be very proud that among the first to fully understand the seriousness of the threat and respond has been a Caribbean nation: Cuba.

No one should be in any doubt: the world’s energy balance is changing rapidly with profound political and economic consequences for the way every country and region will in future relate to one another.

Hardly anyone now questions the central importance of tourism to the Caribbean, the benefits it brings, or its long-term role in economic development.

The way the United Kingdom, the Caribbean’s one-time colonial power, manages its affairs is unlikely ever to be the same again.

On September 10 the incoming President of the European Commission, Jean Claude Junker, named seven Vice Presidents and 20 commissioners who will jointly control the European Commission for the next five years, assuming they are confirmed in November by the European Parliament.

As troubling conflicts loom and the world becomes much less secure, it is striking how Latin America and the Caribbean remain a relative zone of peace.