(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) CARICOM Secretary General, Edwin Carrington will lead a five member delegation to Cuba on Tuesday 7 December, to participate in activities to mark CARICOM/Cuba Day.

The special observance, which was inaugurated in 2002 at the time of the signing of the Havana Declaration, will be commemorated on Wednesday, 8 December with a series of activities in Member States of CARICOM and in Cuba.

Events to mark the day in CARICOM Member States will include exhibitions, lectures, and statements by Heads of Governments. At the CARICOM Secretariat Headquarters in Georgetown, Deputy Secretary-General, Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite is expected to propose a toast (Vin d'honneur) and declare a two-day exhibition open in honour of three decades of collaboration.

Meanwhile in Cuba, where the CARICOM delegation is scheduled to join in celebrations there, a full programme of activities has been planned. The officials will participate in formal, social, and cultural activities, book launches and other novelty events.

CARICOM Member States and Cuba have shared a close relationship that spans thirty years, beginning in 1972 with the establishment of the earliest diplomatic relations between Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. Since then, all member States of CARICOM have established diplomatic ties with Cuba.

A major area, in which the relations have manifested, is in Cuba's contribution to the development of the Member States of CARICOM through the provision of scholarships to persons desirous of pursuing programmes of study in the Republic. Since 1961, a total of 1,218 CARICOM students have graduated from Cuban Universities.