The Opening of CARICOM’s 27th Intersessional Meeting

Erwin LaRocque

The opening of the CARICOM Intersessional started a few minutes ago at the Placencia Hotel. In the next two days, the heads of government of Caribbean states will be meeting in closed sessions at the Ocean Club to discuss the pressing issues affecting the region. Speaking at the ceremony was outgoing Chair of CARICOM, the Prime Minister of Barbados Freundel Stuart. The Secretary General Erwin LaRocque set the tone for this week’s meeting. Here’s a snippet of his opening remarks:

Erwin LaRocque, Secretary General, CARICOM

“Over the next two days, you and your colleague heads of government will be considering some of the issues which are currently impacting our communities. Given the dynamics of the global situation, some of these issues emanate from outside our borders, but have a direct effect on our economic, environmental and social lives. Such situations, while challenging, presents us with further opportunities to strengthen our unity and generate a collective response. It is that unified action along with hard work and coordinated approach which created the successful outcome for our community and the climate change conference, COP21 in Paris last December. We were well prepared due to the excellent work of our task force. The people of the region rallied with us and provided support, particularly civil society and the unions. CARICOM was a unity force and it produced results for our community to address the impact of climate change.”

Later in tonight’s programming, we’ll have coverage of the entire opening ceremony. So stay tuned.