28th
January 2012
UK and Caribbean
Foreign Ministers Approve 2012 Action Plan
Ministers
attending the Seventh Ministerial UK-Caribbean
Forum held last week in St. George’s,
Grenada, have agreed on an Action Plan with
agreements on several topical themes: economic
resilience; security; climate change and sustainable
development as well as other foreign policy
issues.
The UK was represented at the Forum by the Foreign
Secretary, William Hague and Minister for the
Caribbean, Jeremy Browne, as well as Home Office
Minister James Brokenshire and Alan Duncan,
Minister of State for International Development.
Highlights of the Action Plan include:
Economic
resilience
To establish a new strategic partnership between
the countries of the Caribbean and the United
Kingdom to promote prosperity and build economic
resilience through the development of practical
mechanisms which will enhance growth in investment,
employment, production and trade opportunities
to the benefit of the Caribbean and the UK;
Security
To enhance collaboration and coordination in
the fight against illegal drug trafficking among
the Caribbean, the UK and its Overseas Territories
through regional initiatives, greater intelligence
sharing, criminal justice reform and targeting
the proceeds of crime and giving support to
the Caribbean to engage more effectively with
the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI).
Climate
change and sustainable development
To collaborate closely on climate change issues,
recognising that current ‘business as
usual’ trends are likely to lead to catastrophic
climate change, including warming, since the
pre-industrial period of 4C or more. Preventing
this is an imperative we share.
In particular, to work together with urgency
and vigour to close the ambition gap on emissions,
to mobilise climate funding on the necessary
scale and to secure agreement by 2015 on a comprehensive
legally binding global framework.
Other
foreign policy issues
To support the principle and the right to self-determination
for all peoples, including the Falkland Islanders,
recognising the historical importance of self-determination
in the political development of the Caribbean,
and its core status as an internationally agreed
principle under the United Nations Charter.
Countries attending the Forum were: the UK,
Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada,
Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St Kitts
and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname,
Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic.
The full Action Plan can be viewed at: http://www.caricomnewsnetwork.com/
Ministers attending the Seventh Ministerial
UK-Caribbean Forum held last week in St. George’s,
Grenada, have agreed on an Action Plan with
agreements on several topical themes: economic
resilience; security; climate change and sustainable
development as well as other foreign policy
issues.
The UK was represented at the Forum by the Foreign
Secretary, William Hague and Minister for the
Caribbean, Jeremy Browne, as well as Home Office
Minister James Brokenshire and Alan Duncan,
Minister of State for International Development.
Highlights of the Action Plan include:
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