KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Kamina Johnson Smith, is calling for increased multilateral partnerships, in order to bring optimum prosperity to the people of the Caribbean.

Speaking at the opening of a high-level meeting between CARICOM and the Republic of Korea today at the Iberostar Rose Hall Resort in St James, the minister said the meeting is a timely move by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to join forces with the Republic of Korea.

“No country, irrespective of its stage of development, can achieve optimum prosperity for its people without the support of bilateral, regional and multilateral partners,” the minister emphasised. 

“For this reason, we welcome the opportunity for CARICOM and Korea to meet at the foreign ministry level, not only to reflect on and celebrate the important collaboration we have enjoyed over the years, but to examine the ways in which we can strengthen that collaboration and build an even more effective partnership for growth and development,” she added.

Johnson Smith said that the contributions made by Korea in assisting Caribbean states at the bilateral, regional and hemispheric levels to address developmental needs are most welcome, pointing out that CARICOM members have benefited greatly, primarily through the knowledge exchange facilitated by the annual high-level forum on Caribbean-Korea partnership.

She pointed out that a great deal has changed since the 2006 signing of the CARICOM-Korea Consultation and Cooperation mechanism.

“We continue to slowly recover from the financial crisis of 2008, even as we are faced with new obstacles to sustainable development, threats to world peace and security and recurring natural disasters. Faced with these and other existential threats, CARICOM has embarked on a process of introspection and reform which aims to better respond to global dynamics. South Korea, too, has experienced its share of economic and political successes and setbacks, which have required its own national reflection adjustment,” she said.

Foreign Ministry representatives from Jamaica and the Republic of Korea are leading the discourse at the meeting, which is also being attended by their counterparts from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, St Kitts/Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Guyana, St Lucia, and Suriname.