Intensifying cooperation with the Caribbean Community: Germany’s Foreign Minister

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier invited his counterparts from the states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to a conference in Berlin on 2 March. The talks focused on global issues such as climate change and renewable energies, as well as on efforts to reform the United Nations.

Foreign Minister Steinmeier welcomed no fewer than seven of his counterparts to the Federal Foreign Office on Monday, 2 March. The foreign ministers of Guyana, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas travelled to Berlin for a conference of the states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The Minister of Tourism, Economic Development, Investment and Energy of Antigua and Barbuda and the ambassadors of Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Haiti and Suriname also attended the conference at the Federal Foreign Office.

At the beginning of the conference, Steinmeier said that he was delighted that so many of his colleagues from the Caribbean states had accepted his invitation to Berlin. Together, they had discussed ways to continue to build on the excellent relations between Germany and CARICOM, he continued.

Shared values and convictions

Steinmeier added that Germany and the Caribbean states were united by many common convictions:

The meeting in Berlin focused on key global questions such as climate change and a secure and clean energy supply for the future. The CARICOM states and Germany intend to work even more closely together on these and other global topics in the United Nations and other international bodies in the future.

Dialogue on current international issues

Steinmeier added that he and his counterparts had engaged in political dialogue on current international issues, which included developments in Latin America and the Caribbean and the realignment of relations between the United States and Cuba. Moreover, the Caribbean partners had expressed a great interest in discussing German and European efforts to overcome the crisis in the European neighbourhood, he said. The German Foreign Minister said that the attendees had signalled their intention to hold political consultations at regular intervals in the future.

Dialogue with business associations

Steinmeier concluded by saying that the guests from the Caribbean would also be using their visit to hold intensive talks with German companies in Berlin and Hamburg. This shows that “our relations not only have a political dimension, but that they are also based on a strong pillar of economic cooperation for which we have the many committed entrepreneurs and business associations to thank”, he continued.