Belmopan, 12 December 2021 (TDI): Canada and Belize co-hosted the second Canada-CARICOM Senior Officials’ Dialogue. Both parties talked about subjects of mutual interest such as COVID-19 recovery, climate change, and multilateral agreements.
Michael Grant, Assistant Deputy Minister to CARICOM, represented Canada. While the Members States of Caricom were led by the CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General, Colin Granderson.
In the meeting, the Caricom Assistant Secretary mentioned that multilateral engagement and collaboration are important. The Assistant Secretary-General remarked that issues like the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, require countries to work together. In general, global issues need a global response.
This second session of the meeting between Canada and Caricom is the follow-up of the first session. In this new session, both parties created a road map that will help the productivity of their engagement.
https://twitter.com/MGrant_Canada/status/1469331062732079108CARICOM: An Overview
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), is a regional organization with jurisdiction in the Caribbean. It was established in 1973, by the signature of the treaty of Chaguaramas. The treaty of Chaguaramas was signed by then Prime Ministers of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The pillars of CARICOM as a regional organization, are foreign policy organization, security, human and social development, and economic integration. It is an organization with a multicultural and multilingual background. For instance, English, Dutch, French, African and Asian language new variations. Its regroups 20 countries, of which 15 are independent states and 5 associate members.
CARICOM and Canada Relations
Canada and CARICOM interact together, firstly by people-to-people relationship. Secondly, both interact through the commonwealth and Francophonie sphere. Finally, Canada and CARICOM share values democracy, the respect of human rights, and the rule of law.
In particular, Canada has two-way cooperation in a commercial relationship with Caribbean states. Moreover, Canada has companies that work in tourism, natural resources, energy, and clean water. These Canadian companies help generate interest for Canada and the Caribbean countries. So both parties mutually benefit from interactions.
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