CARICOM and Argentina looking towards closer cooperation

Argentina is offering the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) a platform to engage the global community when it hosts the “Second United Nations High Level Conference on South-South Cooperation, PABA 40” in March next year.

It has proposed, as a side-event, a conference with the invited countries and organisations, which are expected to include some of the major economies of the world, agencies of the United Nations, other international organisations, and NGO’s. CARICOM will also be invited to mount a stand in a South-South Cooperation Exhibition.

Argentina’s new Ambassador to CARICOM HE Filipe Alejandro Gardella restated the offer during presentation of his Letters of Credence to CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque at the Headquarters of the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana, Wednesday.

Ambassador Gardella and  Secretary-General LaRocque both also signal their commitment to  activating the already approved “CARICOM-Argentina Standing Joint Commission on Consultation, Cooperation and Coordination”, to advance cooperation in economic, scientific, technical and cultural areas.

Ambassador LaRocque requested Argentina’s support for CARICOM’s call on the international financial community to review its criteria for access to concessional financing to take into account the economic and environmental vulnerabilities of Small Island and Low-Lying Developing States (SIDS), particularly in the context of climate change and natural disasters.  Using the criteria of per-capita income denies several CARICOM Member States access to the concessional financing they need to build resilience prior to the occurrence of a natural disaster, the Secretary-General stated.

He also asked for Argentina’s continuing advocacy for SIDS’ position on climate change which points out that despite having negligible emission of greenhouse gases they are among the most adversely affected, as manifested in extreme weather events, such as those experienced by Dominica and other Caribbean countries during the 2017 hurricane season.

Ambassador LaRocque thanked the Government of Argentina for inviting Prime Minister of Jamaica and Chairman of CARICOM Hon Andrew Holness to participate in the recent G20 Summit which it hosted.  He noted the G20 Leaders Declaration’s inclusion of the paragraph on climate change which refers to the IPCC’s Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 degrees centigrade, and the special reference to the vulnerability of Caribbean States.