I feel privileged to join my Colleague Heads of State and Government here in St Lucia at this Thirty Third Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community and I am pleased to reaffirm Guyana’s commitment to the integration process. I pledge my Government’s full support to the continued efforts of regional Governments and the CARICOM Secretariat to work towards the attainment of a more integrated, more resilient and more prosperous Caribbean.
We are meeting in a year in which two of our Member States are celebrating fifty years of political independence. This is a remarkable achievement for our Region as a whole, and I wish to congratulate the Governments and peoples of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago on this significant milestone.
Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, of all of the vulnerabilities facing our countries today, none poses a more direct threat to our very existence than that of climate change.