Jamaica: PM Holness meets US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, discusses development agendas

Jamaica: Prime Minister Andrew Holness met United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on April 1, 2022 (Friday). During the meeting, he was accompanied by the Senator and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Kamina J Smith.

During the meeting, both the delegations discussed various matters of concern related to the development agendas of small island nations. Secretary Blinken expressed support for the development agenda as advanced by Jamaica and pledged the support and consideration of the United States in helping to realize Jamaica’s plans.

The issues discussed included opportunities for partnership to make Jamaica a shining example of a prosperous and thriving small island democracy within the region.

Some other topics, which were discussed by both prominent leaders, are as follows:

• Investment in our human resource development capacity will have a direct impact on Jamaica’s growth horizon,
• Establishing Jamaica as a nearshore technology hub for logistics, light manufacturing, and other services,
• Partnership on violence prevention through information and intelligence sharing, border protection, and cooperation to eliminate trafficking and other transnational crimes, as part of our security agenda,
• Support for energy resilience and diversification in light of geopolitical developments and the potential impact on Jamaica’s economy over a sustained period,
• To strengthen partnerships and find meaningful ways to support each other, there is a need for democracies to work together

Both delegations, Secretary Blinken and Prime Minister Holness, also focused on Jamaica and the US have had a long and meaningful relationship spanning 60 years; however, it was also agreed that there were many opportunities to strengthen the relationship and build greater partnerships.

We will be using the channel of a working group to continue strategic dialogue to examine proposals for impactful support to Jamaica’s development objectives.

Minister of Foreign Affairs took Twitter to express pleasure and wrote, “It was a great pleasure to meet and engage with Sectary Blinken and his Western Hemisphere team today. Together with PM Andrew Holness, we discussed a range of areas for strengthened cooperation and preparations for the Summit of the USA.”

During this tour to the United States, PM also met with Congress Women Maxine Waters and Yvette Clarke and focused on their goal to strengthen the existing relationship between Jamaica and the United States. Both representatives had discussions around their priority areas of focus and areas of mutual interest.

On March 31, 2022, PM Holness met Vice President of United States Kamla Harris. PM had discussions with Vice President Harris and reaffirmed the strong partnership and discussed ways in which it can be strengthened and expanded.