PM gets update on Caricom secretary general issue

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

St Lu­cia Prime Min­is­ter and Cari­com chair­man Philip J. Pierre has up­dat­ed Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar on ef­forts to seek an ad­vi­so­ry opin­ion from the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice (CCJ) over the ap­point­ment of Cari­com Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Dr Car­la Bar­nett.

The is­sue was among mat­ters dis­cussed when Pierre met with Per­sad-Bisses­sar here in Trinidad and To­ba­go yes­ter­day evening, for talks aimed at strength­en­ing re­gion­al co­op­er­a­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to a state­ment from the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, Pierre, in his ca­pac­i­ty as Cari­com chair­man, briefed Per­sad-Bisses­sar “on the mat­ter of seek­ing an ad­vi­so­ry opin­ion from the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice (CCJ) with re­spect to the ap­point­ment of the Cari­com Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al.”

The is­sue sur­round­ing the ap­point­ment of Bar­nett has been the sub­ject of re­gion­al dis­cus­sion fol­low­ing con­cerns over the process sur­round­ing the reap­point­ment.

The T&T Gov­ern­ment has pre­vi­ous­ly in­di­cat­ed that an ad­vi­so­ry opin­ion from the CCJ would pro­vide le­gal clar­i­ty on the mat­ter.

Apart from the CCJ is­sue, Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Pierre dis­cussed sev­er­al ar­eas of mu­tu­al in­ter­est be­tween T&T and St Lu­cia, with par­tic­u­lar at­ten­tion placed on health and crime-fight­ing ini­tia­tives. The talks fo­cused on ways both coun­tries could work to­geth­er to im­prove the safe­ty, se­cu­ri­ty and well-be­ing of their cit­i­zens while ad­vanc­ing broad­er re­gion­al pri­or­i­ties.

“Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­mains com­mit­ted to work­ing close­ly with our re­gion­al part­ners to deep­en Caribbean co­op­er­a­tion and pur­sue ini­tia­tives that de­liv­er mean­ing­ful ben­e­fits for all the peo­ple of the re­gion,” the state­ment said.

Pierre was ac­com­pa­nied by St Lu­cia At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Leslie Mon­de­sir.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar was joined by At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie, For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers and of­fi­cials from the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs.

The meet­ing comes as re­gion­al lead­ers con­tin­ue dis­cus­sions on strength­en­ing co­op­er­a­tion among Cari­com mem­ber states in ar­eas rang­ing from se­cu­ri­ty and health to gov­er­nance and in­sti­tu­tion­al mat­ters.

The OPM de­scribed the talks as an op­por­tu­ni­ty to deep­en re­la­tions be­tween T&T and St Lu­cia, while find­ing ways to ad­vance shared re­gion­al pri­or­i­ties. The Gov­ern­ment said the en­gage­ment formed part of ef­forts to­wards “a stronger and more unit­ed Caribbean.”