It is welcome news that United States Vice-President Joseph Biden will be coming for a meeting with Caribbean Community Heads of Government later this month as part of scheduled official visits, with his wife Dr Jill Biden, to Brazil, Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago.
The announcement of the surprise visit came last week via the United States Embassy in Port of Spain but it was sparse on details. It indicated that the visit will take place “during the week of May 26” and that the vice-president was looking forward to meeting in Port of Spain with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and “other” CARICOM leaders she had “graciously offered to invite”.
According to the announcement, Biden’s visit “will be an important chance to discuss our collective efforts to promote economic growth and development; access to energy and our ongoing collaboration on citizen security”.
Given the importance this region attaches to its overall relationship with the United States, and not just trade and aid, it is understandable that whatever the valid reservations some governments of our 15-member Community may have about an administration in Washington, the opportunity for a meeting with a United States vice-president could well prove useful – even if hurriedly arranged.
It is known that our Community leaders have been anxious for a scheduled summit meeting with President Barack Obama long before the start of his current second term. But this has not happened.
The reality is that while successive United States administrations – Republican and Democrat – sustain a public perception of the Caribbean as a “strategic partner” in hemispheric affairs, they also often create problems for themselves with their patronizing, unflattering rhetoric about this region being America’s “backyard”.
This “backyard” concept is rooted in the old, outdated anti-communist “cold war” rivalry over “spheres of influence”. It’s a sad throwback to the past in having to contend with such thinking in this third decade of the 21st century.
The Greater Caribbean region, of which CARICOM remains a vital partner in the link between the “two Americas”, deserves a better understanding from decision-makers of the world’s sole superpower on matters of deep concern.
Therefore, whatever the duration of the proposed forthcoming meeting and the structure of the agenda, the hope is that it would at least result in an enlightened and mutually satisfactory relationship, beyond current irritations over trade and security arrangements.
Perhaps we may have more precise information, the sooner the better, on this coming meeting between Vice-President Biden and CARICOM Heads of Government either from Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar, as host in Port of Spain, or the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown.
