{"id":98837,"date":"2020-01-24T08:52:45","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T12:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=98837"},"modified":"2020-01-24T08:52:45","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T12:52:45","slug":"commentary-only-caricom-countries-can-divide-caricom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/commentary-only-caricom-countries-can-divide-caricom\/","title":{"rendered":"COMMENTARY: Only CARICOM countries can divide CARICOM"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Sir Ronald Sanders<\/b><\/p>

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(The writer is Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the United States and the Organization of American States.\u00a0\u00a0He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and at Massey College in the University of Toronto.\u00a0\u00a0The views expressed are entirely his own)<\/i><\/p>\n

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The meeting between U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and the Foreign Ministers of seven Caribbean countries, gave rise to many questions, but the U.S. seeking to \u201cdivide CARICOM\u201d should not be one of them.<\/p>

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External forces can try as they wish to divide the members of the 15-nation Caribbean Community (CARICOM), but only those Caribbean nations can cause the division.<\/p>\n

So, there should be no blame attributed to the U.S. government for \u201cdividing CARICOM\u201d by the invitation to foreign ministers of only six of its 14 independent member-states to attend a January 22 meeting, hosted by the Jamaica government.\u00a0\u00a0The U.S., like every other government in the world, has the perfect right to invite to a meeting any governments with which it wants to confer.<\/p>

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The issue \u2013 if, indeed, there is an issue \u2013 is with those CARICOM governments, particularly the host government, that agreed to the meeting without insisting that no CARICOM government should have been excluded from a rare opportunity to consult a U.S. representative as high-level as the Secretary of State.<\/p>\n

After all, the meeting was held in the Caribbean, under the auspices of a CARICOM government.\u00a0\u00a0It was not held in the U.S. under the control of the U.S. government as occurred when President Trump invited five Caribbean leaders to Mar-a-Largo, his estate in Florida.<\/p>

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At the very least, it was within the Jamaica Prime Minister\u2019s capacity to advise the U.S. government that it would be both prudent and beneficial for representatives of all 14 independent CARICOM governments to be invited to what Mr. Pompeo\u2019s own State Department described as \u201ca roundtable discussion\u201d with the named foreign ministers of the seven Caribbean countries.\u00a0\u00a0It should be noted that, in addition to the six invited foreign ministers from CARICOM countries, the Dominican Republic was also an invitee as it was to the Mar-a-largo gathering with President Trump.<\/p>

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In the past, whenever any CARICOM government has hosted a leader of a major nation, it has been the general practice to invite all CARICOM governments to be present for discussions.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The wider CARICOM meeting with such leaders did not preclude a bilateral meeting by the host government with the invited leader.\u00a0\u00a0Indeed, it was the norm that a bilateral meeting would be held between the host and guest leaders, followed by the wider consultation with all CARICOM governments.<\/p>\n

In this context, the off-the-cuff remark, made by Jamaica Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, at a press conference with Mr. Pompeo, that, \u201cif any\u00adone wanted to attend, they just had to signal\u201d, was unfortunate.\u00a0\u00a0Mr. Holness is a decent man; undoubtedly, had he prepared his response, it would have been more considered and less dismissive than it sounded.<\/p>\n

No CARICOM country should have to ask for an invitation between a representative of the world\u2019s superpower and representatives of CARICOM countries.\u00a0\u00a0From the inception of the treaty organisation, CARICOM member countries have operated in recognition that there is strength in their taking common positions on the crucial issues that affect them jointly.<\/p>\n

A separate collective CARICOM meeting with Mr. Pompeo would not have deprived the Jamaica government of bilateral discussions of matters of peculiar interest to Jamaica.\u00a0\u00a0However, apart from specific national interests, Jamaican concerns, that are shared with all other CARICOM countries, would have been bolstered by Mr. Pompeo hearing the collective voice of the 14 independent member states.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That opportunity was lost at the January 22 meeting.<\/p>\n

It is for the other five CARICOM countries that readily attended the meeting to consider whether they should have accepted an invitation that excluded eight of the countries on whose support and solidarity they depend in global affairs.<\/p>\n

Would the arguments that they advanced, not have had greater effect if Mr. Pompeo had heard them from 14 countries rather than 6, especially as among the remaining eight countries would have been Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname \u2013 three countries that possess resources that are of considerable interest to the U.S.?<\/p>\n

Of course, at the heart of this matter is that CARICOM countries have never agreed to harmonise their external relations, as have the (still) 28 countries of the European Union (EU), which conduct their collective policies through a single European Commission under the direction of a Council of Ministers of the member states.\u00a0\u00a0CARICOM governments have clung to the notion that CARICOM is \u201ca community of sovereign states\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In affirming this position in their external relations, they have placed the rights of \u201csovereignty\u201d over the obligations of \u201ccommunity\u201d, allowing each of them to pursue short term \u201cbenefits\u201d from external sources at the expense of the longer term gains they would get from being seen, indeed and in fact, as a solid and unshakeable group.<\/p>\n

But, there should be no mistake.\u00a0\u00a0External forces will always try to break any solidarity of CARICOM countries if it is in their interest to do so.\u00a0\u00a0No CARICOM government should behave as if such attempts are an affront \u2013 it has always been a fact of international relations.\u00a0\u00a0Instead, CARICOM countries should consider what they lose individually and collectively by fragmenting themselves, instead of acting in solidarity.<\/p>\n

As for the Jamaica meeting, Mr. Pompeo had one overriding objective and that was to secure the support of the seven attending countries to vote for Mr. Luis Almagro to be re-elected as the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has calculated Mr. Almagro\u2019s support and reached the unavoidable conclusion that he does not now have the 18 votes required to be re-elected.\u00a0\u00a0There is nothing wrong with the U.S. government promoting and advancing a candidate it favours; many countries in the Lima Group and in the Caribbean are also promoting the candidates they back.<\/p>\n

The more fundamental issue is not whether external forces are trying to divide CARICOM, but whether CARICOM will allow itself to be divided.\u00a0\u00a0Maybe, at the CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting in February in Barbados, the 14 Heads of independent member states should lock themselves in a room, without anyone else, and thrash out this issue.<\/p>\n

Responses and previous commentaries:\u00a0www.sirronaldsanders.com<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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By Sir Ronald Sanders (The writer is Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the United States and the Organization of American States.\u00a0\u00a0He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and at Massey College in the University of Toronto.\u00a0\u00a0The views expressed are entirely his own)   The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":61361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nCOMMENTARY: Only CARICOM countries can divide CARICOM - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/commentary-only-caricom-countries-can-divide-caricom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COMMENTARY: Only CARICOM countries can divide CARICOM\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Sir Ronald Sanders (The writer is Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the United States and the Organization of American States.\u00a0\u00a0He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and at Massey College in the University of Toronto.\u00a0\u00a0The views expressed are entirely his own)   The […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/commentary-only-caricom-countries-can-divide-caricom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Antigua News Room\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antiguanewsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-24T12:52:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sir.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1933\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1289\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AntiguaNewsRoom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AntiguaNewsRoom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/commentary-only-caricom-countries-can-divide-caricom\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/commentary-only-caricom-countries-can-divide-caricom\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Editor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/36cac05ef6398fe56ae3e6317f8535c5\"},\"headline\":\"COMMENTARY: Only CARICOM countries can divide CARICOM\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-24T12:52:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-24T12:52:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/commentary-only-caricom-countries-can-divide-caricom\/\"},\"wordCount\":1077,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/commentary-only-caricom-countries-can-divide-caricom\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:1619\/h:1080\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sir.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/commentary-only-caricom-countries-can-divide-caricom\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/commentary-only-caricom-countries-can-divide-caricom\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/commentary-only-caricom-countries-can-divide-caricom\/\",\"name\":\"COMMENTARY: Only CARICOM countries can divide CARICOM - 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