Regional foreign ministers will discuss recent developments in Haiti and Caricom’s position on those issues, as well as United States-Caricom relations, when they meet under the umbrella of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR VII) in Barbados, which begins tomorrow.

However, Caricom leaders are not expected to make a decision on their future relationship with the interim Haitian government prior to their Heads of Government meeting in Grenada in July, according to minister of information, Senator Burchell Whiteman.

During Monday’s post-Cabinet press briefing, the minister said that the Cabinet did not discuss the Haiti issue at its earlier meeting and that he had been given no formal information on the issue of where the former Haitian president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, would be headed after leaving Jamaica. But, Whiteman said that he expected an early departure.

The information minister said that the COFCOR meeting would also discuss positions that will be recommended to the Heads of Governments on the United Nations-approved multilateral interim force, which Caricom has said it will not support. Regional foreign ministers will also receive reports from the community’s special envoy to Haiti and decide on how to coordinate assistance during the stabilisation phase there, which is expected to start at the end of May.

But, Whiteman said, “in terms of the general diplomatic arrangements between Caricom member states and Haiti, that has not been discussed at Cabinet”.

He said that tomorrow’s meeting would put Caricom in a position to update the secretariat and advise the heads but, “as we speak, there is no firm decision on the part of Caricom or on the part of Jamaica”.

Recent reports have suggested that the US State Department had written Caricom leaders, suggesting that they support the interim government in Haiti.

An Associated Press report on Sunday quoted St Vincent and the Grenadines’ prime minister, Ralph Gonsalves, as saying that the US State Department was, “essentially demanding” recognition of the interim Haitian government.

The seventh meeting of COFCOR, scheduled for April 22-23, was preceded by a preparatory meeting of officials on April 19-20. To complement that meeting, a presentation is scheduled to be made today by Professor Hilary Beckles, principal of the Cave Hill campus of the UWI, on the theme, “Ways to strengthen the roles of the UWI as a think-tank in the integration process, and its relevance to the substantive policy-making on regional and global issues that will impact on the development of Caricom”.

COFCOR VII will consider a number of other issues of importance to Jamaica and the wider region including:

. implementation of the revised Caricom foreign policy strategy;

. preparations for upcoming summits and ministerial meetings;

. relations with third states and international organisations;

. candidatures; as well as

. rights, entitlements and obligations of associate states.

Jamaica’s four-man delegation will be headed by minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, K D Knight, and will include high commissioner to Barbados, Lorne McDonnough, who is based in Trinidad and Tobago.