New cooperation blocs among countries in the Caribbean and Latin America should not be seen as threats to CARICOM regionalism, says CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General Dr. Edward Greene.

“In this regard, the various strands of cooperation involving CARICOM states in the OECS, ACS, CDCC, ALBA, the South American Union, and the more recent proposal for a LAC Union should not be seen as threats to CARICOM regionalism, but to variable geometry of regionalism that reflects a variety of functional arrangements,” he was quoted as saying at the opening session of the Youth Forum at the Organisation of American States (OAS) in Washington D.C., USA last Tuesday. Greene, according to a CARICOM statement, contended that new regional blocs may form the basis for Caribbean youth to further strengthen the role of Caribbean states in the global arena as they perceive the role and function of regional integration in a more dynamic way.

The youth forum was held to discuss the results of the Report of the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development (CCYD), the statement noted. Greene’s remarks were made under the theme `Keeping an Eye on the Future’ which draws from the title of the Report of the CCYD, `Eye on the Future: Investing in Youth Now for Tomorrow’s Community.’

He highlighted key developments within the Caribbean Community, including the achievements under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.

He also pointed out that strategic developments towards functional cooperation in tourism and transportation, for example, could broaden the basis of regionalism beyond the legal boundaries of the CSME that makes for a more viable and mature regionalism.

Greene alluded to the economic recession from which the world was emerging, as well as the fluid contemporary political climate in the Caribbean and noted that it was this complex web of international relations that Caribbean and Latin American youth must perceive the world in which they lived.
He pointed out also that it was fortunate that this is the kind of world that the OAS subscribes to and that the youth forum was being held in the hallowed Hall of the Americas to deliberate on the proposals of the report of the Caribbean Commission on Youth Development. “This event truly represents an eye on the future,” he concluded.