NEW YORK, United States (CMC) — A top United States official is calling on Caribbean nationals in the United States to help shape Washington’s foreign policy.

Our diversity is our strength, and it needs to move faster,” said Juan Gonzalez, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central America and the Caribbean at the US Department of State as he addressed a panel discussion on the Caribbean Diaspora at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York.

The event, which examined the social and economic problems facing Caribbean nations, was organized by Medgar Evers College and the US Department of State.

It represented the first-ever partnership between the college in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn and the US Department of State to “underscore the deep connections between the US and the Caribbean,” according to Medgar Ever College.

“I would encourage you to join us and to help show how our foreign policy is designed,” said Gonzalez, one of the three panellists.

The others were Lowell Hawthorne, the Jamaican-born president and chief executive officer of Golden Crust Caribbean Bakery and Grill, and Dr Sheilah Paul, Associate Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Education at Medgar Evers College, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago.

The discussion was moderated by Tony Best, the Barbadian-born senior editor at New York’s Carib News newspaper.

Gonzalez said extant US policy towards the Caribbean surrounds education, security and energy security, lamenting that the Caribbean pays more than the rest of the world for energy.

“If we can help the Caribbean, it’ll have implications for the world,” he said.

On exchange, Gonzalez said the goal is to have 100,000 students study in the Caribbean, stating that President Obama earlier this year launched the Young Future Leaders initiative to aid, among others, Caribbean young scholars.

The State Department official said the US has a “special interest in the Caribbean,” which is aimed at seeing “prosperity and security” in the region thrive, disclosing that Washington has provided US$427million to the Caribbean since 2011.

“The Caribbean Diaspora is an incredible force,” Gonzalez said, adding “the community here can have an impact on the Caribbean.”

He said that he migrated to the US, when he was only seven years old, adding that “this country affords lots of opportunities.”

Gonzalez said the Caribbean Diaspora can influence US foreign policy in much the same way as the Colombian American community.