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Your Excellency High Commissioner Philip Kentwell
Deputy Secretary General and other Members of Staff of the Secretariat Representatives of the Media Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen Excellency, it is an honour for me to welcome you to the CARICOM Secretariat on the occasion of the presentation of your credentials to the Caribbean Community. This Ceremony is historic as it marks the first time that the Government of Australia would have accredited a Plenipotentiary Representative to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Excellency, today’s ceremony comes on the heels of another momentous first in CARICOM-Australia relations; the First Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government with your Prime Minister, the Honourable Kevin Rudd last November in the margins of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad and Tobago. There we signed a Memorandum of Understanding formally establishing our new relationship. The areas of collaboration provided for under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) are vital to our development and range from climate change and emergency management, to regional integration and trade facilitation, diplomacy, renewable energy, food security and agricultural cooperation, sports, youth, culture, education and human rights. Excellency, we welcome this MOU and look forward to its contribution to the development of our Region. We are anxious to commence the discussions which will take place later in the year as we seek to operationalise it. Unfortunately, following the signing of that MOU, our CARICOM sister state, Haiti, suffered a devastating earthquake in January of this year with catastrophic consequences. The loss of lives, property and developmental prospects have been virtually unprecedented in this hemisphere. Australia’s prompt and substantial response to this disaster, both directly to Haiti and through CARICOM’s Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), has been greatly appreciated by the Government and people of Haiti and by the Caribbean Community at large. Furthermore, your government’s commitment to contribute to the longer term development of Haiti, in partnership with CARICOM, is most reassuring. We look forward to developing the modalities for collaboration in response to Haiti’s development needs in the coming months. Excellency, as Small Island Developing and Low-lying Coast States, CARICOM countries are particularly susceptible to the threat of the global phenomenon of climate change. For us, the threat is not an abstract or theoretical one. It is one that is critical to our survival. It is for that reason that CARICOM Member States vigorously advocated in Copenhagen for a ceiling of 1.5 degrees centigrade in respect of global temperature rise by 2020. The CARICOM mantra at Copenhagen “1.5 to stay alive!” is more than a slogan. For example, for us here in Georgetown, every night – tonight included – we go to sleep under sea level – some four feet deep! Excellency, the economic profile of CARICOM countries is that of small highly-indebted middle-income countries. As such, while there are a number of international fora in which CARICOM and Australia are represented, there are also a number of critical ones in which CARICOM is not represented. We would wish to call on Australia to be a critical and vibrant advocate for certain CARICOM concerns in those fora in which our voice can only be heard through our “friends at court”. In this regard, the International Financial Institutions and such major international policy-makers as the G8 and G20, must be made more aware of and responsive to the needs of our small highly-indebted middle-income countries. An area of particular relevance is that relating to the Financial Services Sector. Here, the OECD must be sensitized to the fact that our countries’ financial services sectors are critical to our national development. We have sought over the years to comply with the relevant international regulations, including the recently internationally-agreed tax standards. Notwithstanding this, some of our Member States continue to be subjected to categorizations and penalties injurious to our national development. Excellency, though CARICOM’s relationship with Australia is in its infancy, it is but a precocious infant, and the signs are that this relationship will be mutually meaningful, substantial and exemplary. Our membership of the Commonwealth family of nations and our common passion for, and tradition in cricket have laid the foundation for such a relationship. Of course in regard to the latter, the assumption here is that Australia would put an end to its recent unreasonable and persistent practice of thrashing the West Indies Cricket Team at home and abroad! I am sure, Excellency that I can count on your cooperation in this regard! Against this general background, it is with the greatest pleasure, that I accept your credentials and officially welcome you High Commissioner, into our midst. In this context, Excellency, I am pleased to inform you that the CARICOM Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR), will receive your Foreign Minister, the Honourable Stephen Smith, on the occasion of its Thirteenth Meeting in Dominica, on the 6th of May. We look forward to those consultations as we seek to advance our common goals in a mutually fruitful CARICOM-Australia relationship. |
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