PM Browne returns after successful Meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio

PM Browne returns after successful Meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio

Prime Minister the Hon. Gaston Browne on Thursday returned to Antigua and Barbuda following a successful meeting with his OECS and the Bahamas counterparts and US Secretary of State His Excellency Marco Rubio.

Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders, who accompanied Prime Minister Browne to the meeting, outlined that Prime Minister Browne was very surgical in his discourse with the American diplomat.

“He made the point that we are not involved in trafficking in persons. We pay the Cuban doctors and nurses well. We treat them well. We place no restrictions on them. They are not trafficked as far as we are concerned. And the relationship that we have in paying the Cuban government is no different from that which we would have done had we entered into an arrangement for the provision of medical services from Ghana or Philippines who also export medical personnel, and that there is nothing sinister in it,” Sir Ronald reported.

Sir Ronald says this was among the issues on which Prime Minister Brown clearly enunciated Antigua and Barbuda’s position to the US’s top diplomat.

“Prime Minister Brown was extremely good. In fact, I would say he was surgical and precise in putting forward the concerns of Antigua and Barbuda, and the way in which he sees the relationship between the United States and the countries of the Caribbean, and in particular Antigua. What he said was this.

He said, ‘Look, there is no question of the strength of the relationship between Antigua and Barbuda and the United States. And there was no question about the deep regard we have for that relationship.’ He pointed out that we probably have a bigger diaspora of Antiguans and Barbudans living in the United States than we have people in Antigua and Barbuda. And that was one of the points that he underscored,” Sir Ronald pointed out.

Meanwhile, Sir Ronald says Secretary Rubio weighed in on the flow of guns into the Caribbean, which places countries such as Antigua and Barbuda in the way of illegal arms and therefore in harm’s way.

“He said he realizes that a lot of the guns that are entering the Caribbean and that are being used by criminals and gangs come from the United States. And he and the United States State Department, and the United States government, are going to make every possible effort to ensure that the flow of guns comes to an end; so that was a very strong commitment, when you consider the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution allows people here to bear guns, to buy guns, and to do it without restriction,” he said.

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