Colombia wants to help CARICOM

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos says he wants to give special importance and priority to the needs of the Caribbean.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, - Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos has announced that his country wants to give special attention to the needs of the Caribbean at next April's Sixth Summit of the Americas (SOA).

Making reference to the theme of the Summit which his country will host, 'Connecting the Americas: Partners for Prosperity’, President Santos said the SOA is a partnership at the highest political level to find solutions to the problems the continent and islands of the Americas are facing. 

“It is a partnership…to deliver better living conditions to the peoples of our hemisphere. And, in that context, Colombia wants to give special importance and priority to the needs of the Caribbean region,” he has told CARICOM.

While acknowledging the historic role the North has played in the region, President Santos noted the difficulties being faced by that part of the world and pointed out that the Sixth SOA, which will run April 14-15, 2012, would serve the purpose of further developing hemispheric relations.

“We must understand that the Summit of the Americas is a unique and privileged space for dialogue that brings together all the Heads of State and Government of the hemisphere. In that sense, it is an important forum with opportunities for agreement and understanding,” he pointed out.

The Summit, the Colombian President said, could be an ideal scenario for CARICOM to set out its priorities on matters such as the reduction of poverty and inequality, solutions to combat the insecurity that affects the citizenry and the threats posed to the stability of democracies by transnational crime; and the effects of natural disasters.


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