(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite, acting Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) asserted on Friday 25 February that the vision articulated by CARICOM Heads of Government in the landmark 1989 Grand Anse Declaration had not changed, but it had become more compelling.
In her address at the Opening Ceremony of the Twenty-Second Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM, underway in St. George’s, Grenada, Ambassador Applewhaite said that the vision had become irrefutable in the face of greater threats and difficulties posed by the global environment in all its guises.
Recalling the preamble to the 1989 Grand Anse Declaration in which the Heads of Government, inspired by the spirit of cooperation and solidarity, stated their commitment to “work expeditiously together to deepen the integration process and strengthen the Caribbean Community in all of its dimensions,” Ambassador Applewhaite stated that such a position underscored the urgency required of the Community.
“Indeed, the key word in that quotation, at this time, is expeditiously. We might be temporarily distracted from this vision by the internal difficulties our individual Members may be experiencing.”
“If ever there was urgency in this undertaking, it is now. Our people cannot wait a day longer,” she said.
The truism that no individual Member can make it on its own, Ambassador Applewhaite posited was undeniable, adding that it was “no exaggeration” the Region’s “very survival as a people” depended on integration.
“Countries in the Region have important assets and advantages. How we pool them and deploy them to benefit the people of our Community is the crux of the task at hand. I posit that to maximise that benefit, the need to deepen our integration process has not lessened. If anything it has become more urgent,” Ambassador Applewhaite stated.