The action by Dominica of signing up to Venezuela’s ALBA initiative, now seems to be a source of concern in the region. In addition, to some it seems that Antigua and Barbuda and St Vincent are on the same road, having attended the recent meeting of ALBA held in Caracas.
It is felt that the Dominica action may have consequences for Venezuela-Guyana relations, specifically because that country, and perhaps others, may find it difficult to place Guyana’s interests before its gratitude for Venezuela’s assistance under ALBA, and ahead of its Caricom commitment to support Guyana in the event of a crisis over the Venezuelan territorial claim to three-fifths of Guyana.
In examining this contention, it is well to recall, first, that when the PetroCaribe initiative was announced, there seemed to be a sentiment in Trinidad and Tobago government quarters, that those who had decided to adhere to that Venezuelan initiative were subordinating the interests of Trinidad and Tobago to the Venezuelan offer in the context of their Caricom obligations. And it would not be surprising if Trinidad and Tobago feels that joining ALBA is a logical follow-up to adhering to PetroCaribe in the first place. This latter position is implicitly denied by Guyana itself which, through President Jagdeo has announced that it is not committed to membership of ALBA.
The concern with Dominica’s present position has been exercabated by a perception on the part of some, that that country has also come to the conclusion that nothing much can be done about the Venezuelan claim to Aves or Bird Island in the north-eastern Caribbean; and that the OECS’s formal position of opposition to it should not hinder actual and potential beneficial relations with Venezuela.
It could be, if we look at these issues from a slightly cynical (which others might call realistic) point of view, that Dominica’s recent actions might fall under the category of thinking that says that “necessity is the mother of invention”. Certainly the same kind of position might be held by countries like, most recently, St Lucia, who have moved from having diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China to relations with Taiwan.
Dominica, particularly with the decline of its banana industry, with the trade subordinated to the WTO regime, has suffered a major decline in revenue, and has for the last few years faced a serious economic crisis. The crisis has put it, in its search for alternative resources, under a strict IMF programme which has placed constraints on the government’s obligations to many, including public servants expecting their usual salary increases. Prime Minister Skerrit, coming into office after the deaths of former Prime Ministers Roosevelt Douglas and Pierre Charles, seems to have taken the position that meeting his government’s domestic financial and other obligations, necessitates the taking of extraordinary measures. This was the context of his (what some considered) abrupt change from diplomatic relations with Taiwan to diplomatic relations with China soon after he assumed office. There was no objection to this from Caricom countries, since it seemed logical.
It would not be surprising if St Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda were to move in the same direction. The Prime Minister of Antigua, in travelling to Venezuela for the ALBA meeting last week, put his country’s aid priorities as the major objective of his visit, seeking to minimize any view that untoward conclusions should be drawn from his presence at ALBA.
The Prime Minister of St Vincent has, on his plate, a number of important projects, including the construction of an international airport, which presumably he wants to see well on the way before his next election. It would appear that he feels confident (as he usually does) that, as one committed to regional integration, he would not put himself in any position to compromise Caricom’s, or any Caricom member’s, interests. No doubt others might think otherwise, but then, many were surprised when Dr Gonsalves, a well known radical thinker and actor, decided to maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan on his assumption to office.
So from the point of view of some of the smaller states of Caricom, faced with serious financial constraints in the face of the decline of their main revenue earner, a certain pragmatism would appear necessary or inevitable. But of course what they consider pragmatism, others will consider naivete. They will be supported in this view by our great neighbour, the United States, whose concerns about President Chavez are well known.
Critics would well argue also that it is, to say the least, imprudent to make commitments to a country like Venezuela which seems to be embroiled in extensive domestic political change, as well as extensive controversy with its neighbour Colombia and with the United States, without prior discussion with a country like Guyana which has, in a sense, based its diplomacy of extensive international support for its position on the Venezuelan claim on the cohesiveness of support from its first base, Caricom.
The fact of the matter is, however, that it could be said that as hostile winds have blown towards, and over the Caribbean, our own Caricom as an institution has made little effort to look at how these winds can, or will, affect its harmony as an institution. Many issues have been arising in recent years affecting the close economic relations between Caricom states which do not seem to have been subjected to any serious internal Caricom discussion.
The rise in oil prices, and then the PetroCaribe and ALBA initiatives have brought this situation into relief. For although it could be said that adherence to PetroCaribe at least followed the prior commitment of many countries to the San Jose Agreement that followed the 1970s rise in oil prices, looked at from another geographical angle, some might query the extent to which Guyana’s own adherence to PetroCaribe could compromise its position on the Guyana-Venezuela controversy. It is good to try and see ourselves as others see us, whatever our own intentions.
So the issue, in the longer term, is the extent of cohesiveness of Caricom foreign policy as, globally, new configurations change old allegiances and diplomatic positions dissolve. This is not a Caricom predicament. It is a global predicament, as we can see the European Union itself struggling with the dissolution of old Europe and the necessity for enlargement.
And the question arising for Caricom is whether we are taking, as a group, the nature of our response to all these changes seriously, and tackling them systematically, instead of on an ad hoc basis as crises of one kind or another arise.
We have seen, in this context, the careful position which the Government of Barbados has taken in relations to the initial PetroCaribe offer, in the context of the complexity of its relations with Trinidad and Tobago, involving its refining of Trinidad oil, the maritime boundaries controversy and the issue of an energy pipeline across the Caribbean. Barbados has obviously put its relations with Trinidad above other considerations.
On the other hand, we have seen the imbroglio into which Jamaica-Trinidad relations fell as a result of the difficulties in finding a satisfactory solution to Jamaica’s requirements for TT gas.
In the second half of the 1970s Dr Eric Williams saw the difficulties clearly, when, in the midst of Jamaica’s (in particular) economic difficulties, he proposed a financial plan to support that country and others, based on the resources available to TT at that time. He failed, but there could be no doubt about his sense of obligation then to the region, and his belief that it was precisely in times of difficulty that the integrity of the region had to be preserved.
It would seem to be the case today that, among our Heads of Government and Foreign Ministries, very little systematic discussion is going on with respect to the perceptions of individ
ual countries, as to their definitions of their predicaments in this time of international change, and of possible solutions to these predicaments. Instead we seem to wait for a crisis in one or other country, and then react as it affects our particular interests.
This is not good enough. The Dominica response to ALBA (and this is not to justify it), in the context of its current financial nakedness, simply highlights this problem. Complaining against each other from the security of our somewhat better positions will not help the situation, and advance the coherence and integrity of Caricom.