Caricom courting St Maarten

Two high-ranking Caribbean Community (CARI-COM) officials have said that St Maarten is welcome should it decide to join the regional bloc.

St Maarten was recently granted greater autonomy under new country status within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis Dr Denzil Douglas said that he and CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington have spoken "unofficially" on how to bring St Maarten into the group of Caribbean nations.

"We have agreed that we would engage the prime minister and members of her team on becoming an observer, having the status of observer members for Caricom and then we can take it from there," he added.

Sarah Wescot-Williams, the leader of the Democratic Party of St Maarten, took the oath as the country's first prime minister on October 10, 2010.

"I had some initial discussions some years ago with the present prime minister when she was in a different capacity because, at that time, the Netherlands Antilles as a group had been showing some interest in Caricom and we had looked at the possibility of that group coming in as observer members," said Douglas.

Earlier, Carrington said that the offer as associate member was "a vital opportunity" for St Maarten.

"If it is that this new country St Maarten was to be part to the arrangement, this is the time to say so," the outgoing secretary general told members of the business community during a luncheon in his honour over the weekend.

"This is the time to say so to the team that is revising the Treaty of Chagaramas. I don't think you should miss the opportunity. It is a vital opportunity for you and the rest of the Caribbean."

Help for sister nations

Prime Minister Douglas said Caricom has already been discussing how the regional grouping with its new thrust can help sister nations who are within the region in terms of functional cooperation in a number of activities, for example, the Pan-Caribbean Partnership on HIV and AIDS (PANCAP).

" ... So that we can help our sister organisations in St Maarten and other Antilles, so that they can have access to the resources that we have and they can learn to a large extent from what PANCAP has created for the people of the Caribbean Community," Douglas said.

The prime minister said that it is not usually a long process for any country becoming a general member of Caricom.

"If I recall what we went through with Haiti or what we went through with Suriname - we have them as observers - they would engage in discussions as to greater understanding of the principles, the charters that we have used in the creation of the Caribbean Community," he said.

"We would, of course, look at their own constitutional construct as to whether there could be areas of conflict or not, and then the two legal teams would get together and over a period of time, maybe three (or) four years, we would be able to advance their status if they wish to advance."

CARICOM is a bloc of 15 members, plus five associates.

- CMC