BRUSSELS, Belgium (CMC) — St Kitts-Nevis Foreign Minister Lindsay Grant says Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries should have a presence at meetings such as the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Ministerial conference in order to push the agenda of the region.

Grant is the only Caribbean Community (Caricom) Foreign Minister attending the 102nd ACP Ministerial Council meeting here and he told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that it “behoves the membership of the Caribbean to be here because it is better when we come with many voices to the table.

“There is concern that there are not many of us around the table and so our positions may become marginalised and that’s why it is important for us to be at the seat,” he said, adding “if I were to look at it, the African contingent is very much present and it shows also in the level of disbursements to them.”

“These are things that we have as a region to look at, one voice going forward and ensure that we benefit as much as we can out of this arrangement,” he added.

Caribbean countries are mainly represented by their ambassadors.

Grant said that St Kitts-Nevis’ presence at the meeting here is “mainly to ensure we push our agenda, St Kitts-Nevis and the Eastern Caribbean agenda, and I think our position can be positioned within three or four areas”.

He said these were to ensure that “we push the small islands developing states (SIDS) and that we are recognised on the agenda to make sure that we are moving forward into COP 21 (UN conference on Environment) in Paris we are in the forefront of that”.

He said Basseterre is also ensuring that the challenges it has had over the years within this grouping “that they are made known and so going forward we position ourselves in a way that St Kitts and Nevis and the wider Eastern Caribbean benefit from these arrangements.

“I should say that the future arrangements between the ACP and the EU (European Union) that’s being discussed and to make sure the ACP grouping that they ensure they benefit to the fullest extent.

“For us, for example we have ensured that we get our colleagues to recognise that the graduation process which has come about on our end into high income-earning category.

“We are against that really because it is determined basically on GDP (Gross Domestic Product) because it shows we can’t get the concessionary loans and rates etc, and so we have to fight that to ensure that although we may have graduated based upon the analysis…we ensure that we are still beneficiaries of concessionary loans; that’s very important for us as small island developing states.”

Grant said that while St Kitts-Nevis has articulated its position on the matter, it is important to reiterate the point “because it moves small countries like ours, which is 50,000 people outside of the realms of concessionary loans and so one has to be careful with that.

“And so we have put forward the position that one has to take other things into account. I believe the more important thing is not only putting it before the Council, as it were… I think it is important to dialogue with our colleagues on an individual basis to make sure that our position is well articulated going forward,” he told CMC.

Grant said that while he could not say whether or not Caribbean leaders would be present at the ACP summit in Papua New Guinea in May next year, “I believe our presence ought to be felt so that we need to dialogue among ourselves to: one, find out what are the issues, two, what are the issue we want to push in Papua New Guinea, and thirdly we have a presence, significant enough to resound after the conference.”

The St Kitts-Nevis foreign minister said he was also confident that the Caricom would decide on a single candidate for the post of Commonwealth Secretary General in time for when the vote is due later this month.

Last week, leaders of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) agreed on the need to back a single candidate for the position of Commonwealth Secretary General.

OECS chairman and Grenada Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell told a news conference at the end of the summit that the sub-regional leaders had agreed that it was important for the Caribbean to increase its chances of winning the election to replace the outgoing 74-year-old Kamalesh Sharma, the former Indian foreign minister.

The election for a new secretary general will take place in Malta during the November 27-29 Commonwealth Heads of Government conference.

Both Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda have named candidates for the post, with Roseau nominating the former attorney general in Britain, Baroness Patricia Scotland, and St John’s putting forward its ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders.

“What I prefer to say about that is that it is a discussion that’s ongoing and it will be difficult for me to put my country’s position on the table as it is presently being articulated, but I always believe there is importance in unity, and so I believe that we will arrive at a consensus that’s beneficial to the entire Caribbean,” he said.