No: 241, 17 July 2014

The First Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Turkey-Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Consultation and Cooperation Mechanism will be hosted by H.E. Mr. Ahmet Davutoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in Istanbul on 18 July 2014.

Minister Davutoğlu and H.E. Mr. Irwin LaRocque, Secretary General of CARICOM, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Establishment of a Consultation and Cooperation Mechanism on 21 September 2011 with a view to institutionalizing relations between Turkey and CARICOM, which gathers fifteen Caribbean countries (Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago) under the same roof.

CARICOM, which aims at creating a competitive economic potential by developing a single market and common economic policies in the Caribbean region and which is a regional integration organization pursuing its members’ common interests in the international organizations, has become an important partner for Turkey.

During the CARICOM Heads of Government Summit, which was held on 10-11 March 2014 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and where Minister of Foreign Affairs Davutoğlu attended as a Special Guest, Minister Davutoğlu, within the framework of our developing relations with the Organization, invited the Foreign Ministers of the Member States to hold the first meeting of the mechanism at Foreign Ministerial level in Turkey.

This meeting, which will be the highest level event organized between Turkey and CARICOM so far, will provide an opportunity to evaluate current progress and determine the necessary steps to ensure further development of cooperation and to review our bilateral relations with Member States.

The Meeting, which constitutes one of the steps aimed at implementing our reach out strategy to different regions of the world, will be the beginning of a new era between Turkey and CARICOM.