Remarks by the Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ambassador Irwin Larocque on the occasion of the presentation of credentials by his Excellency Luis Fernando Ayala plenipotentiary representative of Chile to the Caribbean Community, Georgetown, Guyana.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the Headquarters of the Caribbean Community on the occasion of the presentation of your Letters of Credence. I can confidently state that welcoming you to the halls of the Secretariat is like inviting a close friend and neighbour over to partake in good conversation. This is because the CARICOM-Chile relationship has been accelerated, deepened, and strengthened in recent years under your President’s administration, allowing us numerous encounters at various levels. Please extend our Community’s appreciation to President Sebastian Piñera for his commitment to deepening the relationship between Chile and CARICOM.
Excellency, allow me to commend you on your country’s achievement of three consecutive years of economic growth, according to the World Bank. This is indeed one of Chile’s many accomplishments and speaks to its penchant for adopting policies that foster economic growth, and which enables it to quickly recover from internal and external shocks such as the global financial and economic crisis. Chile’s ability to maintain continued economic growth in addition to its policies that promote democracy and freedom, respect for the rule of law, human rights and international law, among others, has allowed your country to also become a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as well as a provider of development aid. Excellency, your country’s story is an inspirational one and there is a lot that others can learn from Chile’s experience. Fortunately for us, Chile is willing to share its expertise and this has been one of the important aspects of the revitalised CARICOM-Chile relations.
In February 2012 – after having not met in over a decade – the Second Meeting of the CARICOM-Chile Joint Commission met in Santiago, Chile, at the level of Foreign Ministers. CARICOM Foreign Ministers and their Chilean counterpart, Minister Moreno, held fruitful discussions on a wide range of issues, including International Cooperation in the Multilateral Sphere, Technical Cooperation, and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, among others. At that Meeting, Foreign Ministers agreed on a Plan of Action which covered a range of areas identified by the CARICOM side as being priorities for technical cooperation. Some of these are Agriculture, including food and nutrition security, Spanish Language Training, Diplomatic Courses, Trade Negotiation, and Natural Disaster Management. This set the wheels in motion for South-South Cooperation between both sides.
The meeting of our Foreign Ministers was followed one month later by an exchange of views between CARICOM Heads of Government and President Piñera at the Twenty-Third Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in Suriname. President Piñera also hosted a Special Meeting with CARICOM Heads of Government earlier this year during the CELAC Summit in Santiago. These encounters have further demonstrated the political commitment to work together on areas of mutual interest.
Since the meeting between our Foreign Ministers, Chile’s International Cooperation Agency (AGCI) immediately began to work with the Community at both the bilateral and regional levels in order to implement the Plan of Action. To date, AGCI has completed more than ten of the activities in several of the areas identified in the Plan of Action. Furthermore, a team from AGCI is scheduled to meet with us at the Secretariat in the coming weeks in order to discuss on-going programmes. We look forward to meeting them.
Excellency, Chile has made South-South Cooperation a practical experience for us and I am happy to state that it goes beyond technical cooperation; it also extends to cooperation at the multilateral level. In 2011, the Community supported the Chilean candidacy to the UN Human Rights Council and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights that same year, and in 2012 CARICOM Foreign Ministers endorsed the Chilean candidacy to the UN Security Council, for the period 2014-2015. In turn, Chile supported the successful CARICOM bid for the post of Director-General of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) in 2012. The commitment to strengthen CARICOM-Chile relations was also felt during Chile’s Presidency Pro Tempore of the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC).
Excellency, I wish to once more commend your country and people on Chile’s excellent performance as President Pro Tempore of the CELAC for the period 2012. The Meetings and Workshops during your Presidency were skilfully executed and culminated with a well-orchestrated Summit, which I had the honour of attending in January of this year. At the conclusion of the Summit, Heads of State and Government adopted the Declaration of Santiago and the Santiago Plan of Action in addition to several Special Communiqués and Resolutions of importance to the grouping. Most importantly, Heads of State and Government of CELAC adopted the Resolution, which earned CARICOM representation on an expanded CELAC Troika – this is an initiative that Chile has strongly advocated for on behalf of CARICOM and for which the Region is grateful. I am certain that the implementation of the Santiago Plan of Action will advance the Latin American and Caribbean Integration process.
Excellency, in perusing your curriculum vitae, I note that your background is in Economics as well as Political Science and that you have served in various capacities in your Foreign Ministry and in diplomatic postings. One of your many postings which stood out for me is the one in Milan, Italy, where you were responsible for Culture and Trade Promotion. I have no doubt that your expertise in these areas will come in handy as CARICOM celebrates CARIFESTA XI scheduled for August of this year in Suriname. We hope that you will encourage your Government to participate in this important Festival. It will provide an opportunity to showcase the rich Chilean culture as well as to experience the Caribbean’s culture at its best.
Ambassador Ayala, I am certain that you will contribute greatly to expanding and strengthening CARICOM-Chile relations. I look forward to working with you. I receive, with pleasure, your Credentials as the Plenipotentiary Representative of Chile to the Caribbean Community and wish you every success on your tour of duty.
CARICOM Press Release
