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Greene Says VC Bird Was a Pillar of Regional Integration and Early Architect of CARICOM’s Foundations
Foreign Affairs Minister and ABLP Chairman E.P. Chet Greene used Tuesday’s VC Bird Day ceremony to highlight the late National Hero’s role in shaping regional unity, calling Sir Vere Cornwall Bird Sr. “a pillar of regional integration” whose political vision helped lay key foundations for what would become the modern Caribbean Community.
Speaking during the wreath-laying observance in St John’s, Greene said Bird’s leadership extended far beyond Antigua and Barbuda’s borders, noting that his commitment to regional cooperation emerged long before independence.
He told the audience that Bird stood among the early champions of a unified Caribbean.
“He was a pillar of regional integration… a signatory to the CARIFTA agreement which paved the way for CARICOM,” Greene said, underscoring Bird’s influence in the transition from the West Indies Federation to the early economic agreements that would later evolve into the regional bloc.
Greene said Bird’s regional outlook grew directly from his understanding of the Caribbean’s shared struggles and its collective potential, describing him as “quintessentially Caribbean by nature” and a leader who recognized that the region’s future depended on collaboration rather than isolation.
Beyond regional diplomacy, Greene also traced Bird’s domestic legacy, describing how the late leader transformed Antigua and Barbuda from a dependent colony to a functioning modern state in the decades leading up to independence.
Greene recalled that Bird’s fight for political self-determination produced sweeping changes that now define the nation’s constitutional and social landscape.
“He did not simply manage a colony. He envisioned and constructed a state for its people,” he said, adding that Bird “fashioned your constitution, guaranteeing the civil and human rights that we all enjoy today.”
Greene also linked Bird to the country’s major social reforms, noting that his leadership ushered in “free secondary school education” and “free medical services,” which he described as critical building blocks of a fair and equitable society.
He said Bird’s transformation of the local economy — particularly the shift from a sugar-based plantation structure to a tourism-driven modern system — was a defining achievement that reshaped Antigua and Barbuda’s long-term growth trajectory.
“He engineered the shift from a sugar-dependent plantation economy to a modern, tourism-driven one,” Greene told the audience.
Greene also framed Bird’s legacy as the beginning of a political lineage that continues through successive administrations.
He pointed to the stewardship of former Prime Minister Lester Bird and the current leadership of Prime Minister Gaston Browne, describing the governing party as a vessel carrying V.C. Bird’s original nation-building mission across generations.
“This is a living, breathing institution that evolves while staying true to its core promise of upliftment,” he said.
Greene closed by urging the public to remember Bird not only as Antigua and Barbuda’s founding leader, but as a regional statesman whose commitment to Caribbean unity and cooperation remains central to the country’s identity today.
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