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A house made of BRICs
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The arrival of the Indian cricket team to play the West Indies beginning tomorrow, reminds us of how little attention Jamaica gives to that Asian country, much to our peril, we might add.
India is one of the world's oldest and most important civilisations. It also has the second largest population of any country. The ancestors of many Jamaicans hail from India and an integral part of our society. India has one of the largest economies in the world and is a nuclear power of growing worldwide influence. It is an influential participant in the councils of the world such as the G20 and in the United Nations.
The day cannot be far off when it will be a permanent member of the Security Council. In the World Trade Organisation the four major players are the United States, the European Union, Brazil and India.
Yet Jamaica does not have an embassy in New Delhi. Thankfully, India has an embassy in Kingston.
Ignoring India is a serious failure in our foreign policy. It is an inexplicable lacuna which must be remedied immediately. It is no longer acceptable to confine our relationship to the periodic West Indies-India cricket match. Our foreign policy urgently needs to be updated to reflect the new global realities and this must be evident in the overseas deployment of the Foreign Service.
In case of another emerging global economic power, Brazil we have exchanged several visits at the highest political levels, especially as we try to consummate the re-vitalisation of the cane industry. Yet we have no resident ambassador and not even an honorary consul. Here again, Brazil has an ambassador and an embassy in Jamaica.
India and Brazil together with Russia and China have become known as the BRICs. They account for 40 per cent of the world's population, almost 20 per cent of the world economy; two are permanent members of the UN Security Council and three of them have nuclear weapons.
While their differences are such that they do not constitute a coherent bloc, last week they held their first summit meeting in Yekaterinburgt to explore their commonalities with a view to exerting more influence in international affairs.
Obviously a small country in a tight fiscal situation such as is the case of Jamaica cannot have an embassy in every capital that it would like. The budget of the Foreign Ministry can never permit it to do every thing that it wants to do. The answer is to reallocate expenditure to effect a redeployment of our overseas missions.
We are not calling for closing any of the current missions but for getting more representation from the current budget. Spend the limited resources more effectively by dusting off the Orane Report and implementing some of the recommendations, such as smaller delegations and more use of technology.
The first step in the process of reorganisation and modernisation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a recognition that this urgently needs to be done. We want action not an assurance that the new realities are recognised but it will take time and money. Over the last 20 years successive governments and ministers have talked about a presence in some of these countries but that has been all.
Jamaica cannot afford to ignore the BRICs. In fact, if we are serious, strengthening our relations with the BRICs is no longer an option. The world is rapidly becoming a house made of BRICs.
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