Premier Brantley participates in virtual 2nd Canada-CARICOM Foreign Ministers’ meeting

St Kitts and Nevis: Premier of Nevis and Leader of Concerned Citizens’ Movement (CCM) Mark Brantley participated in the virtual 2nd Canada-CARICOM Foreign Ministers’ meeting.

Praising the platform, Premier Brantley stated that it provided an excellent stage to exchange ideas and views on international as well as regional issues.

He further asserted that the Governments of Canada and Caribbean Regions have been maintaining historical ties and a robust relationship. Canada and Caribbean countries also enjoy people-to-people solid ties.

“Truly an honour to participate virtually in the 2nd Canada-CARICOM Foreign Ministers’ meeting. Today provided an excellent platform for exchanging views and consensus on critical regional and global issues. The relationship between Canada and the Caribbean region remains rock solid,” Brantley stated while expressing pleasure.

It is worth noting that Caribbean Community – CARICOM and its members have collaborated with the Canadian Government in many areas, including climate and economic resilience, emergency response, economic growth, security cooperation, technical assistance, human rights, education, and health.

Canada also shared a long-standing commercial relationship with the CARICOM countries. The countries also share two-way merchandise trade, and Canadian companies are active in various sectors such as financial services, clean technology, tourism, natural resources and energy, and education.

The virtual meeting was hosted on April 1, 2022 (Friday), by the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs – Mélanie Joly, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Immigration for Belize – Eamon Courtenay. Chair of the Caribbean Community Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) co-chaired the 2022 Canada-CARICOM Foreign Ministers’ Group meeting.

The ministries shared their views on various international concerns, including:
– Regional security and stability,
– Global issues and multilateral cooperation,
– Ukraine-Russian Crisis, and
– Building a resilient and sustainable economic recovery.

Apart from Mark Brantley, the attendees of the meet were – Eamon Courtenay (Belize), Dr Carla N Barnett (CARICOM), Chet Greene (Antigua and Barbuda), Frederick Mitchell (The Bahamas), Sendra Husbands (Barbados), Dr Kenneth Darroux (Dominica), Oliver Joseph (Grenada), Hugh Todd (Guyana), Dr Jean Victor Geneus (Haiti), Sheila Sealy Monteith (Jamaica), Joseph E Farrell (Montserrat), Alva Romanus Baptiste (St Lucia), Dr Ralph E Gonsalves (St Vincent and the Grenadines), Albert Ramdin (Suriname), and Dr Amery Browne (Trinidad and Tobago).