The Seventh Regular Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) was held at the Headquarters of the Community on 8 October 1999. The Meeting was very positive and reached a number of important conclusions.
Today the Heads of State and Government of the CARICOM countries and the Prime Minister of Spain, Mr. José María Aznar, met in Port-of-Spain (Trinidad and Tobago) for a joint working session at which the Prime Minister of Spain was invited to address the CARICOM leaders.
In the ensuing discussions, the Heads of State and Government of Spain and of CARICOM reviewed a range of political issues and trade and cooperation matters affecting the CARICOM countries and Spain and agreed to issue the following Joint Declaration.
1. In signing the `Herdmanston Accord' on 17 January 1998, the Leaders of Guyana's two main political Parties stated that they are doing so `specially mindful of the willingness of (their) CARICOM colleagues to remain engaged with Guyana in this endeavour'. It is in this spirit that as colleagues we have taken the opportunity of our St. Lucia Summit, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of CARICOM, to initiate a dialogue with them on the current situation in Guyana - conscious of our own full participation as signatories to the `Herdmanston Accord'.
1. The Caribbean Community is confronted with an unprecedented threat whereby a Member territory could actually cease to exist, not as a result of a plebiscite, but as the result of a natural disaster and its consequences. Montserrat, though a British dependent territory, is one of the earliest members of CARICOM, and the Community has a legitimate interest in its well-being and future.
The Bureau of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, meeting in St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda, on Tuesday, August 26, 1997, expressed its deep regret to the Government and people of Grenada and the family of the late Sir Eric Gairy at the passing of the former Prime Minister of Grenada.
Positioning the Caribbean for the Twenty-First Century
We, the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, assembled for the Eighteenth Meeting of our Conference, in Montego Bay, Jamaica, on 4 July 1997;
Recalling the historic gathering of fifty years ago in this city, when an earlier generation of West Indian leaders sought to prepare their countries for the new world, then emerging after the Second World War, with its prospect of decolonization and freedom for all peoples;
The Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community assembled for the Special Session of their Conference considered reports of the possible shipment of plutonium through the Caribbean Sea which have been discussed at length in the media and which have given rise to expressions of serious concern by Governments across the Region.