AS OF this year, December 8 will be observed as CARICOM/Cuba Day. The proposal, which was put forward by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, was adopted at the CARICOM/Cuba Summit in Havana, Cuba, from December 7-8, last year.
Minister of Information, Senator Burchell Whiteman, who made the announcement at the post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, on Monday, said it was also decided that a summit of the Heads of CARICOM states and Cuba would be held every three years, with the venue alternating between CARICOM states and Cuba.
The reason for last year's summit, he said, was to mark the start of diplomatic relations on December 8, 1972, between Cuba and four CARICOM countries Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago as was decided at the Seventh Conference of Heads of Government of the Common-wealth Caribbean Countries, held at Chaguaramas, Trinidad and Tobago from October 9-14, 1972.
Senator Whiteman said Prime Minister Patterson made the point that in taking that decision, the countries of the CARICOM region had looked beyond the confines of colonial history and envisioned a broad based Caribbean community.
Reflecting, Minister Whiteman recalled that the late Dr. Eric Williams, former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, had spoken about that with much passion, when the Prime Minister and himself were both students on the campus of the University of the West Indies.
That vision, Mr. Whiteman said, was carried forward to 1972, when these countries established diplomatic relations with Cuba, "at a time when our nearest and most powerful continental neighbour to the north (the United States) would not have been comfortable with that position."
"What history has shown, as Prime Minister Patterson has pointed out, is that a good idea in 1972 has proven to be virtually an inevitable development in 2002/03," he added.
Senator Whiteman emphasised that what was of very great importance to Jamaica and the region, "is that there is a commitment to work with Cuba to deal, in a regional way, with crime, drugs and security threats and also to deal with environmental issues, both among ourselves and through the international organisations and community structures."
He said the Prime Minister also looked closely at the issue of trade, and welcomed Cuba's decision, which was announced by President Castro, to apply for membership to the Cotonou Convention, between the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and the European Union.
Mr. Whiteman said Prime Minister Patterson also felt it was inequitable that Cuba was excluded from the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations, and was very strong on the point that no one member of this regional grouping of countries should be excluded from a programme, which was essentially regional in scope.
