Guyana to attend Caricom-Cuba Ministers Meeting

GINA, GUYANA, Friday, March 10, 2017

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, will be leading a delegation from Guyana for the fifth CARICOM-Cuba Ministerial Meeting to be held on March 11 in Havana, Cuba.

Today, at a post-Cabinet media briefing, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said, “The meeting will discuss the current international situation and recent developments relating to climate change, and the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.”

The Meeting is also expected to address CARICOM-Cuba relations and technical cooperation in areas of health, education, culture, disaster management and agriculture.

There will also be a review of the progress made in implementing the agreements of the fifth Cuba-CARICOM Summit which was held in December 2014.

The Ministerial Meeting is held within 18 months of the Meeting of Heads of State at the Cuba-CARICOM Summit. Heads of State from CARICOM and Cuba meet every three years for the Cuba-CARICOM Summit.

The Ministerial Meeting is being held in keeping with the commitments contained in the December 2002 Havana Declaration of Heads of State and Government of CARICOM and Cuba on the thirtieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Member States of CARICOM and the Republic of Cuba.

The Ministerial Meeting precedes the twenty-second meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS). The ACS comprises 25 members and 11 associate member states from Latin America and the Caribbean.

The meeting will also be attended by foreign and technical staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Meanwhile, Minister Greenidge is also expected to represent Guyana at the forty-fifth session of the African Caribbean and Pacific Parliamentary Assembly and the Intersessional Meeting of the ACP-EU joint Parliamentary Assembly in Brussels, Belgium from March 21-24, 2017.

By: Tiffny Rhodius