The President of the Republic of South Africa, His Excellency Mr Nelson Mandela has accepted an invitation from the Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Dr the Hon Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada to attend the XIX Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community.
The Meeting will take place in Castries, St Lucia from 30 June to July 4, 1998 and President Mandela is expected to be present for the final two days during which he will address the Heads of Government. President Mandela’s visit takes place in the midst of celebrations marking the 25th Anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas, which established CARICOM.
An invitation was originally extended to President Mandela to attend the XVII Meeting of the Conference in Barbados in 1996 but he was unable to accept at that time. He however despatched a Special Envoy, the Hon. Derek Hannekon, Minister of Agriculture to meet with the CARICOM leaders.
Subsequent to that visit, a CARICOM Ministerial Trade and Investment Mission led by the Dr the Hon. Raphael Fletcher, Foreign Minister of Grenada went to South Africa earlier this year. The visit was very successful and augured for the development of future links between South
Africa and CARICOM . The Mission met with political and business leaders including South Africa’s Vice-President, Mr Thabo Mbeki and Foreign Minister, the Hon. Alfred Nzo. The opportunity was taken then to renew the invitation to the South African President, which His Excellency has now kindly accepted.
The importance of South Africa’s growing relations with the Caribbean Community will be emphasised by the President’s visit.
Caribbean Community exports to South Africa showed a strong increase to reach approximately 24 million US dollars in 1997 while South African exports to the Caribbean in 1997 was just over 80 million US dollars.
