CARICOM to meet with Dutch territories on association membership

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary General Irwin la Rocque is to hold talks with officials in the Dutch territories of Curacao and Sint Maarten on the possibility of them gaining associate membership of the 15-member CARICOM grouping.

A CARICOM Secretariat statement issued on Tuesday, March 6, said La Rocque had been mandated by regional leaders at their inter-sessional summit in Haiti last week to begin the negotiations as part of the “Enlargement Policy” of the Community.

While it gave no date as to when the talks would begin, the statement noted that the discussions would “better determine their expectations of Associate Membership as well as what benefits this relationship could yield for the Community.”

CARICOM leaders also agreed that “further consideration would be given to the applications from the French Overseas territories of Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana.”

So far, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman islands and Turks and Caicos Islands, are the only associate members of CARICOM.