NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 8 – The A3+1 bloc of Kenya, Niger, Tunisia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on Tuesday received an endorsement from the African and Caribbean to champion the regions’ interests.
The caucus of the African and Caribbean nations which sit at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) received a formal endorsement during the inaugural CARICOM-Africa Summit convened by Kenya.
The virtual meeting bringing together Heads of State and Government from the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) and the African Union (AU) also deliberated on trade and investment between the two regions.
The forum chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta and attended by Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa among other African leaders adopted nine resolutions in a joint communique shared at the end of the summit.
The communique highlighted the need to pursue efforts to curb an increase in temperatures to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels in line with the Paris Climate Accord, an international treaty on climate change which came into effect in November 2016.
President Kenyatta, the President-in-Office of the Organization of African Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), said climate change remains an existential threat to the two regions emphasizing the need to incorporate climate action into the countries’ national policies and long-term development plans besides adopting global best practices to mitigate and adapt to threats posed by the phenomenon.
“In Africa, extreme swings in temperature and rainfall patterns, have for instance, significantly increased habitat suitability for biting insects and the transmission of vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, and yellow fever.
“Similarly, in the Caribbean region, climate extremes in the last few decades have had devastating impacts on economies and livelihoods; and have led to a rise in sea levels and increased ocean acidification,” he said.
Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, challenged African and Carribean nations to work together saying the countries wield formidable global bargaining power.
Prime Minister Browne, the Chairperson of CARICOM, said the success of the African Union’s Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP), which helped procure COVID-19 vaccines and other supplies for Caribbean and African nations had demonstrated the two regions immense potential.
“We must establish structures of cooperation to promote our mutual socio-economic interests; increasing investment and trade, and people-to-people exchanges between Africa and the Caribbean,” the Prime Minister said.
“We should resist being pushed to the margins of international decision-making and collaborate on decisions to restructure the global financial architecture, on global taxation, derisking, climate change and reparations among others,” he said.
Prime Minister Keith Rowley (Trinidad and Tobago), Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Jamaica’s Andrew Holness also made remarks during the summit.
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