(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) His Excellency Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on Wednesday May 27, 2009 signalled support to Japan from Member States of the Community for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for the term 2009-2010.
Accepting Letters of Credence from the new Ambassador of Japan to CARICOM, His Excellency Tatsuaki Iwata, at the Headquarters of the CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana, the Secretary-General said that the Community’s support to Japan comes with the recognition that the country was committed to international security. He said that CARICOM had also noted Japan’s advocacy for human security, and against that backdrop, many Member States had, “no hesitation in endorsing the candidature of Japan for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council.”
As the Community prepared to engage in the negotiations on the reform of the Security Council, the CARICOM Secretary-General said that it had attached great importance to ensuring that these inter-governmental negotiations were conducted in “an inclusive, transparent and democratic manner.”
Secretary-General Carrington stated that the Region was looking forward to the advancement of its cooperation with Japan, and in this regard, it was keen on convening of the Second CARICOM-Japan Ministerial Meeting in order to further discussions at the political level on the direction of this cooperation.
Ambassador Iwata welcomed the Community’s desire to reinforce bilateral ties with Japan with the convening of a Second CARICOM-Japan Ministerial Level Conference. He said that since the first conference in November, 2000, “the world has changed”; therefore, a meeting “in the near future,” was necessary to decide on “new political guidance,” which would inform a new framework for enhanced CARICOM-Japan cooperation.
Secretary-General Carrington told Ambassador Iwata that CARICOM was appreciative of Japan’s continuing support in the areas of Technical cooperation through the assistance of the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) and the Japan-CARICOM Friendship and Cooperation Fund, which had seen the implementation of many projects in areas such as disaster management, the sustainable management of the fisheries sector of the Region, and the provision of a Project Identification Expert for Regional Development Planning since the late 1990s.
