St. Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris has held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Andrew Holness as he wraps up an official visit to Jamaica.
A brief government statement issued in Basseterre said that the two leaders met on Friday and “addressed a number of matters of regional importance”. It did not elaborate.
Harris is the current chairman of the 15-member regional integration movement, CARICOM, and the statement said following the discussions, and signed a Book of Condolence in honour of the former Jamaica prime minister, Edward Seaga, who died at a hospital in the United States on May 28.
Harris praised Seaga for his contribution to CARICOM noting that he was instrumental in reviving the integration movement in 1982 when Jamaica hosted the first meeting of the regional leaders after a seven-year hiatus.
Harris said Seaga’s efforts served to reinvigorate the integration process.
“Seaga managed to convene a meeting of the CARICOM heads and to, as it were, bring back some new life to the importance of the leaders’ meeting, even if they would not agree on all the issues,” Harris told the Jamaica Information Service (JIS).
“When we think of the life and times of Eddie Seaga, we measure a man who has been resilient throughout the times,” he said, describing Seaga’s career in politics as “long and colourful.
“He served at the highest office of government as the prime minister of Jamaica for two terms and had been, perhaps, one of the longest-serving leaders of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). A man with such a pedigree will certainly long be remembered by the people of Jamaica and the people of the region,” he noted.
“We hope that… his writings will help to provide thoughts that we, as young politicians still learning, will better understand the dynamics of political life, how to hone our own space and to create better legacies for our people —not just in our member states — but in the Caribbean region,” Harris said.
Seaga was Jamaica’s fifth prime minister, serving from October 1980 to February 1989. He died aged 89.
