(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Secretary-General, Edwin Carrington has called on Australia to be a critical and vibrant advocate for certain CARICOM concerns in those fora in which our voice can only be heard through our “friends at court”.

This, at a historic ceremony on Friday, 30 April, at the CARICOM Secretariat as the Secretary-General was accepting the credentials of the first Plenipotentiary Representative of Australia to the Caribbean Community. Addressing the newly accredited Plenipotentiary Representative, His Excellency Philip Kentwell, the Secretary-General acknowledged that the advocacy role for Australia on behalf of CARICOM is relevant in, for example, the International Financial Institutions and such major international policy-makers such as the G8 and G20 which groups must be made more aware and responsive to the needs of our small highly-indebted middle-income countries.

The presentation of credentials is the most current step in the development of CARICOM/Australia relations and cooperation and follows the First Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government with Australia’s Prime Minister, the Hon. Kevin Rudd last November in the margins of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad and Tobago. There CARICOM and Australia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) formally establishing the new relationship.

Secretary-General Carrington described the areas of collaboration provided for under the MOU as vital to the development of CARICOM, ranging as they do from climate change and emergency management, to regional integration and trade facilitation, diplomacy, renewable energy, food security and agricultural cooperation, sports, youth, culture, education and human rights.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org