(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) will conduct its annual review of the Region’s relations with Third Countries and International Organisations, and determine policy initiatives which could guide future relations ,during its 12th Meeting scheduled for 8-9 May in Kingston, Jamaica.

The Council, comprising of the Community’s Foreign Ministers, will also discuss advancing Regional Integration and Development as a response to today’s global challenges as one of the themes of the meeting. One of those challenges, the ongoing global financial and economic crisis is a separate item on the agenda.

A report from the Task Force established to examine relations between CARICOM and the Dominican Republic will be discussed at the session, as will relations with the European Union and the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States. The state of relations with traditional partners such as Canada and the United States will also come under the scrutiny of the Ministers.

In its Community Relations portfolio, the Council will examine a proposal for the establishment of a Hemispheric Development Fund for Haiti, which arose out of discussions at the recently concluded Fifth Summit of the Americas held in Trinidad and Tobago.