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Sunday, 28 September 2008 |
PORT AU PRINCE – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary General Edwin Carrington has arrived in Haiti for talks with President Rene Préval and other officials on the devastation caused by the passage of four tropical storms over the past few weeks.
A CARICOM Secretariat statement said that Carrington is being accompanied by Ambassador Colin Granderson, the Assistant Secretary-General for Foreign and Community matters. They are expected to get a first hand look at the devastation caused by the storms that killed hundreds of people and left thousands more homeless.
The Secretariat said that food and water are desperately needed in the areas affected by the storms, and relief efforts were also being hampered by the flood waters that have not yet receded.
It said that the two CARICOM officials would also meet with Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis and other government officials during their two-day visit.
From Haiti, Carrington and Granderson will travel to New York to attend the 63rd United Nations General Assembly as well as a special meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Governments focusing on reform of international institutions.
CARICOM Heads of Government and their Foreign Ministers are also scheduled to meet with the United States Secretary of State on Thursday, two days before the annual informal meeting of the CARICOM Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR).
The Bureau of COFCOR, comprising of Antigua and Barbuda, Belize and Jamaica will meet with the Foreign Minister of Argentina on 25 September and will participate in the 32nd Annual Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the G77 and China the following day.
Antigua and Barbuda is chairman of that grouping.
Following his meetings in New York, the Secretary-General will travel to Ghana for the four-day Summit of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of Countries (ACP) that begins on 30 September.
The highlight of the summit will be the discussions on the controversial Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with the European Union.
The summit will be preceded by a meeting of the ACP Council of Ministers and Joint Meeting of ACP Council of Ministers and ACP Ministers of Foreign Affairs.
Carrington and Granderson will also visit South Africa to attend the First African Diaspora Summit that will focus, among other things, on the need to build sustainable partnerships between the African Diaspora and the African Continent, the CARICOM Secretariat said.
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