CARICOM marks fifth Africa Day anniversary

CARI­COM is call­ing for deep­er co­op­er­a­tion be­tween the Caribbean and Africa as the Com­mu­ni­ty marks the fifth an­niver­sary of CARI­COM-Africa Day.

In a mes­sage for Mon­day’s ob­ser­vance, CARI­COM Chair­man and Saint Lu­cia Prime Min­is­ter Philip J Pierre said the two re­gions have strength­ened their re­la­tion­ship since the first CARI­COM-Africa Sum­mit in 2021.

Pierre point­ed to the 2024 mem­o­ran­dum of un­der­stand­ing be­tween the CARI­COM and African Union sec­re­tari­ats, as well as ex­pand­ed part­ner­ships with in­sti­tu­tions in­clud­ing Afrex­im­bank.

He said co­op­er­a­tion has al­so ad­vanced in ar­eas in­clud­ing health ser­vices and air con­nec­tiv­i­ty, with the aim of ex­pand­ing trade, tourism and peo­ple-to-peo­ple ex­changes.

Pierre al­so reaf­firmed CARI­COM’s sup­port for repara­to­ry jus­tice for peo­ple of African de­scent, while ac­knowl­edg­ing the lega­cy of the transat­lantic slave trade.

He said the Caribbean and Africa must use their col­lec­tive voice to ad­dress cli­mate change, nat­ur­al dis­as­ters and geopo­lit­i­cal in­sta­bil­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly in pro­tect­ing vul­ner­a­ble states.

Pierre said Caribbean peo­ple are recog­nised as con­stituents of the African Union’s Sixth Re­gion and de­scribed the grow­ing re­la­tion­ship as a mod­el of South-South co­op­er­a­tion that should de­liv­er prac­ti­cal ben­e­fits, in­clud­ing new op­por­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple and lo­cal busi­ness­es.