Rwandan president wants close relations between Africa and CARICOM

PORT OF SPAIN (CMC):

Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Wednesday urged CARICOM countries to move beyond declarations of intent and look to solidify their relationship with Africa while focusing “on concrete initiatives which address the challenges that nations like ours face today”.

Kagame, who is making his first-ever visit to Trinidad and Tobago, addressed CARICOM leaders on the final day of their 45th annual summit, telling them “we need to come together in real terms …”

He said over the past 50 years, CARICOM has distinguished itself as one of the most vibrant regional integration organisations in the developing world with “many accomplishments”.

Kagame said that the Organization of African Unity, as the African Union was originally known, was founded just 10 years earlier than CARICOM in 1963 and that “these anniversaries are an opportunity to respond to the desire for closer collaboration between our two regions.

“We are closely linked. The horrors of the Middle Passage, and the indignities of colonialism, join our peoples in a shared story of struggle, survival, resilience and, ultimately, renewal.”

He said many intellectuals and professionals from the Caribbean served in Africa in the years after independence, helping to build the continent’s new institutions.

“The African diaspora, which is known as the Sixth Region of the African Union, has particularly called for deeper cooperation with the Caribbean, and this call has been reciprocated.

“But I want to suggest that it is past time to go beyond declarations of intent. We need to come together in real terms and focus on concrete initiatives which address the challenges that nations like ours face today. It is possible to do so.”

Kagame said that since Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley launched the Bridgetown Initiative last year, “we are already seeing changes in the global conversation on climate, vulnerability, and debt.

“Countries like ours can’t print money when we face a crisis. We have to borrow. Yet some of us are no longer eligible for concessional interest rates. Tools like the United Nations Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, and the Commonwealth’s Universal Vulnerability Index, reveal the special needs of small island developing states.

“In Africa, we have countries such as Seychelles, which I have just had the opportunity to visit, with similar climate financing difficulties as you face in the Caribbean. We can work together to advocate for a more responsive and inclusive international financial architecture.”