Newly accredited Plenipotentiary Representative of the United Kingdom to the Caribbean Community, Victoria Glynis Dean (current British High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean), on Wednesday, pledged to support Caricom.
A release from the Caricom Secretariat said that the High Commissioner, in her remarks after presenting her credentials to Secretary General Irwin LaRocque, Caricom at the Caricom Secretariat, pledged to play the role of advocate for the conduit of Caricom’s views in the pursuit of its objectives on the global stage and support member states in their relations with third states in respect of trade.
Referring to the priority Caricom Heads of Governments have placed on climate change, the British envoy said she will work with Caricom to ensure that climate change is kept at the top of the agenda, and to ensure that support from the UK was delivered.
Dean said, “The current economic situation in some Caricom members highlights that challenging environment we all find ourselves in. And it also highlights the vulnerability. Exogenous shocks come hard and fast in this Region.
“The peoples of the Caribbean are resilient and adaptable, and have to be. Climate change is perhaps the most serious and alarming of these challenges, and will require that resilience and adaptability to come to the fore, along with creativity, investment and forward planning.”
The High Commissioner said the United Kingdom was also interest in continuing to support the reform process in the Community in “practical and very tangible” ways.
“I am an avid believer in the importance of regional cooperation and integration, and the many often unseen and unexplained benefits it can bring to countries and citizens. That said, it means I also know how complex and tricky the development and integration experience can be; these bodies take time and care to build; and the UK firmly believes there is a growing role for Caricom to play and wants to work with you to help foster that,” she stated.
Ambassador LaRocque, in his remarks, told the new Plenipotentiary Representative that he was convinced the strong and mature relationship between the two parties could meet the challenge of finding reasonable solutions to issues that arose between them.
“We have done so in the past and I have no doubt that we will so do in the future. We will continue to work together steadfastly and aggressively on the things that we do agree on, in the interest of the security, prosperity and sustainability of our respective communities and the global population,” he stated.
“UK-Caricom relations are as diverse as they are deep, spanning from diplomatic and commercial to social and cultural ties, strengthened by a vibrant and active Caribbean Diaspora in the UK,” the Secretary-General said.
Those ties are bolstered by the UK-Caribbean Forum which provided an important opportunity for identifying, discussing and agreeing upon the priorities for co-operation bilaterally, regionally and multilaterally, he noted.
He added that Caricom looked forward to another productive exchange in June on issues of mutual importance such as security, climate change, the Post-2015 Development Agenda, sustainable trade and economic growth.
The Secretary-General said the Community was appreciative for the UK’s support, through Department for International Development (DFID), to its adaptation to climate change and in the on-going reform process. He noted that progress in the two-pronged change process that involved a strategic plan for the community and the transformed secretariat had been satisfactory.
