Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Cari­com lead­ers have agreed to strength­en re­la­tions with In­dia in ar­eas in­clud­ing so­lar en­er­gy, high-yield­ing seeds and oth­er agri­cul­ture in­no­va­tions, gener­ic med­i­cines and can­cer ther­a­py as well as track­ing sar­gas­sum sea­weed.

This was con­firmed in a joint state­ment is­sued by Cari­com and In­dia yes­ter­day fol­low­ing Wednes­day’s sec­ond Cari­com-In­dia sum­mit be­tween lead­ers and In­dia’s Prime Min­is­ter Shri Naren­dra Mo­di.

The meet­ing, chaired in part by Cari­com chair­man Dick­on Mitchell (Grena­da’s Prime Min­is­ter) was at­tend­ed by nine Cari­com lead­ers in­clud­ing T&T’s Dr Kei­th Row­ley and the For­eign Min­is­ters of Be­lize, Ja­maica, and Saint Kitts/Nevis.

Lead­ers re­viewed the ex­ist­ing trade and in­vest­ment re­la­tion­ship be­tween Cari­com mem­bers and In­dia, and the re­cent progress dri­ven by mu­tu­al in­ter­est in sec­tors such as en­er­gy, agri­cul­ture, ICT, health­care and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals.

Ac­cord­ing to the state­ment, of­fi­cials not­ed with “sat­is­fac­tion” the con­struc­tive de­lib­er­a­tions dur­ing Wednes­day’s sum­mit and agreed to reaf­firm the im­por­tance of the Cari­com-In­dia re­la­tion­ship and pro­mote fur­ther de­vel­op­ment of part­ner­ship through en­hanced co­or­di­na­tion of po­si­tions on the glob­al in­ter­na­tion­al agen­da.

Lead­ers agreed to strength­en eco­nom­ic and com­mer­cial re­la­tions and co­op­er­a­tion be­tween Cari­com states and In­dia in the fol­low­ing key ar­eas:

• En­er­gy and In­fra­struc­ture through col­lab­o­ra­tion on re­new­able en­er­gy, en­er­gy ef­fi­cien­cy, trade and in­vest­ment in the en­er­gy sec­tor. De­cen­tralised so­lar ap­pli­ca­tions in­clud­ing, but not lim­it­ed to, so­lar rooftop, so­lar mi­ni and mi­cro grids, so­lar de­sali­na­tions units and so­lar cold stor­age, util­i­ty scale so­lar and bat­tery stor­age; even as the re­gion seeks to di­ver­si­fy its en­er­gy mix, and pro­mote col­lab­o­ra­tion in the strength­en­ing of mar­itime con­nec­tiv­i­ty for the de­vel­op­ment and con­sol­i­da­tion of the Cari­com Sin­gle Mar­ket and Econ­o­my.

• Agri­cul­ture and food se­cu­ri­ty. With Cari­com’s Agri-Food Sys­tems Agen­da aimed at re­duc­ing its food im­port bill by 25 per cent by 2025, they agreed on the need for greater re­liance on in­no­va­tion and tech­nol­o­gy, in­clud­ing cli­mate smart tech­nol­o­gy; ex­pan­sion of agri-busi­ness and agri-pro­cess­ing; strength­en­ing of trans­port and lo­gis­tics sup­port sys­tems part­ner­ship in food pro­duc­tion; high-yield­ing seeds and agri­cul­ture ma­chin­ery. Col­lab­o­ra­tion was agreed on be­tween the In­di­an Coun­cil of Agri­cul­tur­al Re­search (ICAR) and in­sti­tu­tions such as the Caribbean Agri­cul­tur­al Re­search and De­vel­op­ment In­sti­tute (CAR­DI) to boost ef­forts un­der the co­or­di­na­tion of the Cari­com Min­is­te­r­i­al Task­force on Food Pro­duc­tion and Food Se­cu­ri­ty.

• Health and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals in­clud­ing gener­ic med­i­cines; drug test­ing lab­o­ra­to­ries; ra­di­a­tion tech­nol­o­gy; can­cer ther­a­py; dial­y­sis ma­chines; sea am­bu­lances and the Bharat Health Ini­tia­tive for Sahyog Hi­ta and Maitri (BHISHM) Cubes.

• Tech­nol­o­gy and in­no­va­tion (Hu­man Re­sources and Ca­pac­i­ty Build­ing) in ed­u­ca­tion, dig­i­tal pub­lic in­fra­struc­ture dig­i­tal health, in­for­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy, agri­cul­ture, food pro­cess­ing and bio­fu­els, as well as space-based ap­pli­ca­tions which could be utilised, in­ter alia, in agri­cul­ture pro­duc­tion, se­cu­ri­ty sur­veil­lance, ear­ly warn­ing sys­tems and the track­ing of sar­gas­sum along coastal ar­eas. Both sides will al­so fos­ter col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween their re­spec­tive in­sti­tu­tions of learn­ing and re­search in ar­eas of com­mon in­ter­est.

• Con­tact and strength­en­ing cul­tur­al link­ages—lead­ers ac­knowl­edged the im­por­tance of strength­en­ing peo­ple-to-peo­ple links be­tween Cari­com and In­dia and com­mit­ted to deep­en­ing these ties through ini­tia­tives in ar­eas such as sports, cul­ture, mu­sic, film, me­dia, tourism, yo­ga, ex­change pro­grammes, and build­ing con­nec­tions be­tween their diplo­mat­ic acad­e­mies. They agreed to fos­ter col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween re­spec­tive in­sti­tu­tions of high­er learn­ing and re­search in ar­eas of com­mon in­ter­est.

Lead­ers de­cid­ed that the third Cari­com-In­dia Sum­mit will be held in In­dia. They agreed that the For­eign Min­is­ters of Cari­com and In­dia will fol­low-up on the de­ci­sions and agree­ments adopt­ed at Wednes­day’s meet­ing.