SAINT LUCIA — Saint Lucia will be represented at a meeting with United States Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo, on Tuesday, it has been confirmed, the St. Lucia Times reported on Monday, January 20.
External Affairs Minister Sarah Flood-Beaubrun will attend the meeting with Pompeo in Jamaica, government sources told St Lucia Times.
The meeting with the US official is being held against the backdrop of a warning by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, of an attempt to divide the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
“We don’t look to pick fights. I don’t look to pick fights, but I am conscious that if this country does not stand for something, then it will fall for anything. As chairman of CARICOM, it is impossible for me to agree that my foreign minister should attend a meeting with anyone to which members of CARICOM are not invited. If some are invited and not all, then it is an attempt to divide this region,” said Mottley.
She was addressing a gala to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the late Barbados prime minister and regional integrationist Errol W. Barrow on Saturday night.
Mottley was quoted by CMC News as saying that she is conscious that in the next week questions will be asked as to whether the Barbados foreign minister happened to be missing in the meeting in Kingston.
Last week, Jamaica’s Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Kamina Johnson-Smith, said Pompeo’s two-day working visit, which begins on January 21, is a commitment to strengthen relations with the Caribbean.
Pompeo will hold talks with Prime Minister Andrew Holness and senior members of his cabinet on the second day of the visit and is expected to give a policy speech on the Caribbean region’s critical importance to the United States, and the country’s renewed commitment to closer ties, based on shared values, interests and economic prosperity, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade said.
Both the Jamaica Gleaner and the Observer newspaper, quoting sources, said that Pompeo is also due to meet with several Caribbean leaders. But a CARICOM source told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the regional grouping had not been formally invited to participate in the discussions during Pompeo’s visit.
Last year, the leaders of Jamaica, Saint Lucia, the Bahamas and Haiti flew to Florida to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.
Mottley officially became chairman of CARICOM on December 31, 2019, and will serve as chairman of that regional 15-member group for the net six months. She replaced Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister Allen Chastanet.
