Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Kenneth Baugh (second right) addresses journalists yesterday, after the 12th meeting of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations, at the Hilton Kingston hotel in St Andrew. Accompanying him are (from left) Colin Grandison, assistant secretary general of the Caribbean Community, and Baldwin Spencer, prime minister and minister of foreign affairs for Antigua. - Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer

CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY (CARICOM) foreign affairs ministers have agreed to invite the Dominican Republic to sit on the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR).

Chairman of COFCOR, Dr Kenneth Baugh, minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade for Jamaica, says CARICOM is accepting the Dominican Republic's request for membership based on the economic opportunities for the community. He made the disclosure during a press conference at the Hilton Kingston hotel yesterday at the end of the two-day meeting of COFCOR. The decision to admit the Dominican Republic to COFCOR was based on the recommendation of the CARICOM Task Force which was established to examine the relations between CARICOM and the Dominican Republic.

already part of CARIFORUM

The Dominican Republic is already part of the CARIFORUM grouping which has been negotiating the Economic Partnership Agreement between Caribbean countries and the European Union.

Baugh also said: "There is a feeling that other Caribbean countries that border the Caribbean Sea have a relationship with us as well. So, it is in our interest to expand into those countries in terms of entering into economic and trading cooperation with them."

He added: "The bigger the marketplace, the better it is for our private enterprise ... to cater for a wider market, and this is one of the disadvantages we had over the years catering to a relatively small marketplace."

united approach

The global economic crisis also engaged COFCOR's attention. Baugh says the foreign ministers have taken on Prime Minister Bruce Golding's request for unity among CARICOM countries to deal with the present global economic crises.

The prime minister urged CARICOM at the opening ceremony on Friday not to be daunted by the existing and the emerging challenges of the global crisis, but instead grab hold of the opportunities presented, and to draw collectively on the strengths which must come from within.

Baugh said in this regard, COFCOR agreed that CARICOM states should be represented at the highest possible level at the upcoming United Nations Conference on World Financial and Economic Crises and Its Impact on Development in New York.

nadisha.hunter@gleanerjm.com