CARICOM again calls for closer ties to Africa

The 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping Monday reiterated a call for closer collaboration with Africa in fashioning a new global order as the region participated in “Africa Day” which it said underlines the strengthening of relations between the continents.

CARICOM chair and Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, in a congratulatory message, said the new dynamic is contributing to the creation of a space for engagement and exchange of views on a common destiny and shared future.

“So my friends let us have a voice in the international arena collectively as the world tries to find solutions to this crisis in a manner that does not leave those of us in Africa or those of us in the Caribbean behind”.

Mottley said it was also important to recognise that 75 years after the establishment of the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions –the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank – “to come together to determine how best we can re-fashion how they function and how they look to ensure that we are not left out of the critical corridors of decision making”

She said it was vital ‘so that our peoples have an opportunity to bring that moral leadership” noting that at the time the UN was created “many of our states simply did not exist as independent countries.

‘Therefore the contemplation as to how and what the United Nations should do or the Bretton Woods institutions should do in fashioning their world did not take into account our existence and indeed our desires for a future that’s reflective of an inclusive partnership with our people”.

Mottley said that as African Day is being celebrated this year, it should be viewed as a “milestone on the road, yea to a CARICOM-Africa cooperation, but not just simply for ourselves but for the world.

“Lets us show that the people of African descent can make a meaningful contribution to this world and that indeed our experiences over the last few centuries, prior to our becoming independent, stand as a platform to give us the impetus to be able to show the world that there can be a better way, a  more caring way, a more inclusive way and one that does not reflect the manner in which our countries were taken advantage of and worst of all, our people exploited”.

She said both Africa and the Caribbean have a “solemn duty to do right by our people.

“Let us across CARICOM, across Africa rise to the occasion and make life better for our people. But we can only do so through collaboration and cooperation rooted in common values,” she added.

Mottley said that the International Decade for people of African descent being led under the theme “People of African Descent, Recognition, Justice and Development” must allow for an open discussion of the regions contribution to a modern world.

(CMC)