After eight years of the presidency of George W. Bush when America focused primarily on its so-called war on terror, Caribbean countries, understandably, see in Barack Obama the proverbial breath of fresh air.

At least Mr Obama has been saying the right things and signalling the kinds of initiatives that would ease the discomfiture with the United States felt by Washington's small neighbours in the island archipelago to the south.

For instance, at this month's Summit of the Americas in Port-of-Spain, Mr Obama said he had come to listen in a spirit of partnership, a tone counter to the arrogance of the Bush administration when Uncle Sam walked heavily, drawled menacingly and projected its power. Or, so it was perceived.

Symbolic of this new approach to hemispheric policy was the president's decision to ease the travel restrictions on Cuban-Americans to Cuba and their ability to send money to relatives on the Caribbean island. Mr Obama has also raised the possibility of serious talks with Havana on the lifting of the 50-year trade embargo on the Communist country and the normalising of relations.

Shook hands with chavez

And in Port-of-Spain, he even warmly shook hands with one of his predecessor's most virulent critics, Hugo Chavez, without - the claims and prognostications of America's right notwithstanding - emerging as an acolyte of the Venezuelan president.

It is hardly surprising, therefore, to hear the assessment of Jamaica's Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, following a meeting on the margins of the Port-of-Spain summit, between Mr Obama, and leaders of the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom).

After five minutes, Mr Golding said it was as if Mr Obama was someone with whom they had been doing business for a long time - and regularly. But that, Mr Golding would have recognised, was part of Mr Obama's trademark charm.

The important question is: Where is the beef? That is, there has now to be substance to a relationship between the US and Caribbean that has largely meandered these past eight years.

Immediate concern

For while issues like climate change and global warming, which Mr Obama has placed on America's agenda, are important to the Caribbean, there are several issues of immediate concern to Caricom, which the community deems demand Washington's urgent attention.

Indeed, as Mr Golding noted, Caricom stressed the region's concerns about crime, fuelled by the narcotics trade, and the flow of illegal guns into member states. Those guns come mostly from the United States, which is the primary market for the drugs which transit the Caribbean. As Mr Obama conceded in the case of Mexico, there is a shared responsibility on the part of the United States for drug-driven crime in the region.

Caricom, too, is a grouping of small and micro states whose vulnerability to, and case for special and differential treatment in, world trade and economic arrangements is underlined by the international economic crisis. It is a perspective we hope the Obama administration shares and will find its way in America's attitude at world economic talks.

So, after the talk of Port-of-Spain, we look for concrete action. Mr Obama should signal the new course by quickly appointing ambassadors to vacant posts in the Caribbean, including Jamaica. Important: his appointees must carry heft.

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