Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials con­firmed yes­ter­day that Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley will head a team from T&T at next week’s Sec­ond Cari­com-In­dia sum­mit in George­town, Guyana, which In­dia’s Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Mo­di will at­tend.

The sum­mit is be­ing held from No­vem­ber 20-24 at George­town’s Mar­riot Ho­tel and is geared to­ward fos­ter­ing fur­ther co­op­er­a­tion be­tween both re­gions. T&T’s team is ex­pect­ed to leave on No­vem­ber 19.

A Cari­com me­dia ad­vi­so­ry stat­ed that the Cari­com-In­dia meet­ing will be a his­toric one that is ex­pect­ed to fur­ther so­lid­i­fy bi­lat­er­al co­op­er­a­tion be­tween Cari­com and In­dia in en­er­gy and in­fra­struc­ture, agri­cul­ture and food se­cu­ri­ty, health and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, tech­nol­o­gy and in­no­va­tion, as well as hu­man re­sources and ca­pac­i­ty build­ing.

Row­ley and For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Amery Browne did not re­ply to queries yes­ter­day in which spe­cif­ic ar­eas T&T may seek to ad­vance co­op­er­a­tion with In­dia.

The open­ing cer­e­mo­ny next Wednes­day will fea­ture re­marks by Cari­com chair­man, Grena­da’s Prime Min­is­ter Dick­on Mitchell; Guyana’s Pres­i­dent, Dr Mo­hamed Ir­faan Ali; Mo­di and Cari­com Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al, Dr Car­la Bar­nett.

A joint state­ment will be shared at the end of the sum­mit. 

Ahead of the sum­mit, a No­vem­ber 6 meet­ing held by the In­dia-Cari­com Joint Com­mis­sion—in­volv­ing the Sec­re­tari­at, Cari­com mem­ber states and Min­istries in In­dia—re­viewed the en­tire spec­trum of re­la­tions be­tween In­dia and Cari­com. This in­clud­ed eco­nom­ic and com­mer­cial, agri­cul­ture, health and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, en­er­gy and in­fra­struc­ture, tech­nol­o­gy and in­no­va­tion, hu­man re­source and ca­pac­i­ty build­ing, cul­ture and peo­ple-to-peo­ple ex­change. 

Both sides de­lib­er­at­ed on strength­en­ing eco­nom­ic co­op­er­a­tion, en­hanc­ing trade and fos­ter­ing a ro­bust part­ner­ship in ar­eas from ed­u­ca­tion and dig­i­tal pub­lic in­fra­struc­ture to cli­mate change adap­ta­tion and dis­as­ter man­age­ment.

In­dia’s press has stat­ed that PM Mo­di’s lead­er­ship in ini­ti­at­ing such sum­mit-lev­el meet­ings re­flect­ed In­dia’s grow­ing com­mit­ment to en­gag­ing with the Glob­al South, “specif­i­cal­ly in ar­eas of mu­tu­al con­cern such as eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment, cli­mate change, and se­cu­ri­ty co­op­er­a­tion.”

The in­au­gur­al sum­mit was held in 2019.

Mo­di’s sum­mit with Cari­com lead­ers this year is part of his state vis­it to Guyana. He is ex­pect­ed to ad­dress Guyana’s Par­lia­ment, the In­di­an com­mu­ni­ty and the In­di­an di­as­po­ra in Guyana. 

He is al­so ex­pect­ed to vis­it Nige­ria and Brazil.