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THE Prime Minister left on February 18 to attend his final Caricom Heads of Government meeting.
A statement issued by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) said Dr Rowley and Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne have left for Barbados to attend the 48th regular meeting of Caricom leaders.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley will chair the meeting, which runs from February 19-21.
Mottley, outgoing Caricom chairman Grenada Prime Minister Dickson Mitchell, Montserrat Premier Reuben Meade and Caricom Secretary General Dr Carla Barnett will address the opening ceremony on February 19.
On Caricom’s website, Mottley said, “Whether tackling the climate crisis, addressing gun violence, or championing equitable global financial reforms, we must act with one voice and one purpose. Building this region we love is not only about the governments and its work. It is the responsibility of each and every one of us as Caribbean people, as Caribbean institutions.”
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Barnett said at the meeting, Caricom leaders will “assess challenges arising in the rapidly changing global context, and seek to devise solutions that advance regional integration, and economic and social development.”
The OPM identified the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME), food and nutrition security, climate change and finance, ongoing challenges in Haiti, security issues, digital resilience, external relations, maritime and air transport and reparations as items on the agenda for regional leaders to discuss.
After the opening ceremony, Caricom leaders will hold a series of business sessions at the Wyndham Grand Barbados Hotel from February 20-21.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who will be special guests at the meeting, will either be involved in some of these sessions or hold discussions with regional leaders on the fringes of the meeting.
The meeting ends on February 21 with a closing news conference at the Wyndham Grand Barbados Hotel
Energy Minister Stuart Young will act as prime minister until Rowley returns home. Young, who is also PNM chairman and MP for Port of Spain North/St Ann’s West, was selected in December by the PNM’s parliamentary caucus to succeed Rowley as prime minister.
Last December, Rowley confirmed his plans to retire from electoral politics ahead of this year’s general election. This includes resigning as prime minister and not seeking re-election asMP for Diego Martin West, which he has represented since 1991.
On February 17, the PNM screening committee selected broadcaster Hans Des Vignes as its Diego Martin West candidate.
Rowley said he would attend his final Caricom summit as prime minister this month. He added this meeting and other matters needed to be attended to before he resigns.
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He holds the national security portfolio in Caricom’s quasi-cabinet.
One matter he may seek to advance at the meeting is the Caricom Arrest Warrant Treaty.
Its aim is to establish within Caricom a system of arrest and surrender of requested people for the purposes of a criminal prosecution for an applicable offence; or executing a custodial sentence or greater punishment where the requested people have fled from justice after being convicted of or sentenced for an applicable offence.
At the last Caricom heads’ meeting in Guyana last November, Rowley said once this legislation is implemented, criminal actors in the Caribbean will know that in “every Caricom territory, the law applies to them equally, as soon as we implement the laws, with respect to warrants for their restraint, apprehension, in anticipation of successful prosecution.”
He also said significant progress has been made on legislation on advance passenger information that will facilitate greater cross-border co-operation between regional law-enforcement agencies.
Trinidad and Tobago Newsday
