Georgetown : The recently concluded Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) on April 1, in the Dominican Republic, saw Guyana striking a chord at regional integration.
CELAC aims to unite all of the Latin American and Caribbean states in order to strengthen the political, social and cultural integration of the region, improve its quality of life, stimulate its economic growth, and advance the well-being of all of its people.
“The Barbadians put together a declaration on correspondent bank, an area that has been of great concern to them…we worked and provided some support to Barbados,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge told the Government Information Agency (GINA).
This move was seen as significant as often times mustering unanimity poses a challenge in these groupings. CELAC members would discuss an area of particular interest to a member state; however the rules for a decision that is not unanimous poses a challenge to moving forward discussions and the work of the group .
“You really don’t want a situation in which 30 countries agree that they should go forward in this direction, one country doesn’t agree and the whole group is held back because of one country,” Minister Greenidge explained.
The ideal situation would be that the country with the reservation lays it on the table and the decision goes ahead. “If they (the objecting country) want to give reasons for the reservation, the rules would be put in place to enable that to take place in an orderly fashion because in the past, we’ve had difficulties,” Minister Greenidge, explained.
In the past, issues existed in Ecuador over Honduras in relation to the question of the Paris 21 agreement where a country was refusing to allow the outcome of that agreement to be mentioned.
Taking this into consideration, it was agreed by member states that they should revisit the rules of procedures to put in place mechanisms that will allow for orderly decision -making.
“Some member countries including Guyana have sought to have a discussion with a view to arriving at some conclusion and a decision that would enable the group to deal with areas where there is no unanimity,” Minister Greenidge said.
CELAC is a regional bloc of 33 Latin American and Caribbean states. It was formed at the Unity Summit, which consisted of the 21st Summit of the Rio Group and the 2nd Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development (CALC), in the Mayan Riviera, in Mexico on February 23, 2010.
The Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs convenes twice a year or more frequently if necessary.
