Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Senator Maxine McClean. (FP)
Ministers of Foreign Affairs from across the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will gather in Barbados from May 18 to 19 for the Twentieth Meeting of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR).
The meeting will be chaired by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Maxine McClean, and will comprise Ministers responsible for the Foreign Affairs of CARICOM Member States.
Following the opening ceremony on Thursday, May 18, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Two Mile Hill, St. Michael, at 9:00 a.m., the plenary session of the CARICOM Foreign Ministers will discuss, among other things, A New CARICOM Diplomacy for a Changing International Environment; Post-Cotonou Partnership and the Future of the ACP – Strategic Approach; and The Way Forward on Trade and Development Cooperation with a Post- Brexit United Kingdom.
The Foreign Ministers will also reflect on engagement within CARICOM during the retreat component of the meeting, themed: Community Engagement for Regional Sustainable Development.
The COFCOR meets formally only once each year, and is responsible for determining relations between the Community, international organisations and Third States. It coordinates, in close consultation with Member States, Community policy on international issues with the policies of States in the wider Caribbean region, in order to arrive at common positions in relation to Third States, groups of states and relevant inter-governmental organisations.
All decisions emanating from the COFCOR will be tabled for consideration and approval at the Thirty-Eighth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM, to be held in Grenada from July 4 to 6.