Argentina creating stronger ties with the Caribbean

Gustavo Martinez Pandiani, Ambassador of the Argentine Republic to Barbados affirmed that his country’s goal is to have a strong presence in the Caribbean.

He was speaking at the Opening reception of the Argentine – Caribbean Regional Cooperation Workshop at the Argentine residence in Rockley.

In his brief remarks, the Ambassador indicated, “I am grateful to the Government because they have been helpful in this effort, we have nine countries form the English-speaking Caribbean represented here, with a delegation from Argentina. Argentina is far away in terms of geography but we are a really close country in terms of friendship, we have been here in Barbados for years working on diplomatic relations and we opened an embassy for the first time here in the late 80s, then we came back to Barbados in 2013 and established the second permanent Ambassador to Bridgetown.”

According to him, “We also have an embassy in Jamaica, Trinidad, St Lucia so we are trying to have a permanent presence in this part of the world. Our idea is that Latin America and the Caribbean is not just a figure of speech but a geographical and political reality. A few days ago there was the summit of Americas in Lima and for the first time one of the English speaking countries, St. Lucia was a part of the summit and we feel very proud that we can coordinate foreign policy. The workshop’s mission is to identify projects or areas for cooperation to start working together in three main areas, that of Agriculture, Spanish as a second language and SMEs [Small and medium-sized enterprises]. We are looking forward to fostering stronger ties.”

Kay Sealy, Director of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade added, “On behalf of the Government of Barbados we express our gratitude to the Government of Argentina for bringing this workshop to Barbados and we are confident we can produce good ideas that can be implementable. We look forward to the signing of the Technical cooperation agreement between Barbados and Argentina which is the last in the Caribbean.”

The Regional Cooperation Workshop took place from the 24th to 25th April, 2018, in the framework of Argentina’s State policy towards the Caribbean in the pursuit of strengthening the regional relationship of friendship between our countries. The Workshop focused on areas of Agroindustry for the strengthening of food security, the Teaching of Spanish for improving the long-term integration of Spanish-speaking countries surrounding the region, and Third-sector activities for small and medium sized companies in order to respond to sustainable economic development.

The objective of the Workshop is to connect Argentine experts to their Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago’s counterparts, with the aim of identifying potential areas of cooperation that are of significance for the development of countries in the region. (NB)