Disharmony in foreign policy could hamper joint CARICOM missions proposal - Johnson Smith

Kamina Johnson Smith, minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, says the lack of harmony in foreign policy throughout the region could inhibit the proposal to have joint Caribbean Community foreign missions.

Prime minister of Grenada,

Dr Keith Mitchell, made the recommendation while speaking about the ways in which member states could streamline their resources.

"At a point where we don't have a political union [and] don't have a harmonised foreign policy, we coordinate where possible, [but] we don't harmonise. I know that there have been several circumstances recently which have shown that we don't have a harmonised foreign policy. That might be a challenge," said Johnson Smith told The Gleaner.

She argued that Jamaica's foreign missions perform bilateral functions and the idea of a merger should not only examine economics but also the implications on foreign policy and how it is practised by member states.

TOO MANY EMBASSIES

On Friday, Mitchell told journalists, "We should not be having an embassy - poor Jamaica, poor Grenada - each of us having embassies in London, expensive London."

"In Barbados, for example, the British Government has one embassy Ö serving the (Eastern) Caribbean, and they have billions of pounds. Yet, we go asking for aid, and each of us have big embassies in London, the most expensive place in the world, I'm just using London for example," added Mitchell.

However, in April, the United Kingdom announced that it plans to establish three new diplomatic posts in the Eastern Caribbean countries of Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Johnson Smith disclosed that there was an attempt to share a mission in the past.

"... What happened was that Jamaica was the only country that paid. We ended up paying and the whole thing dissolved, because we certainly couldn't bear the costs."

She explained that the foreign affairs ministry was currently reviewing the foreign service in a push to optimise bilateral and multilateral engagements.

Johnson Smith said, "How we rationalise, not only the locations of our missions, but the structure of our staffing in headquarters and missions ... is under review at this point in time - how it is that we look at Europe in terms of our current missions and what happens post-Brexit ... ."

brian.walker@gleanerjm.com