The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) has started negotiations with Morocco in relation to the design and implementation of a series of technical cooperation missions financed and supported by the Northern African country for the period 2020-22.

A statement issued by the St. Lucia-based OECS Commission said that Ian M. Queeley, the Ambassador of the Embassies of Eastern Caribbean States to the Kingdom of Morocco held “productive, first-round discussions” with the Head of Technical Cooperation, Fiacel Farchado of the Moroccan Agency of International Cooperation (Agence Marocaine de Coopération Internationale) on the initiative.

It said that the areas of technical cooperation are being informed and developed from the perspectives of the shared sustainable development goals and objectives of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Kitts-Nevis.

Assistance with Blue-Green economies

“Designed to aid the region’s ongoing transition to Blue-Green economies, areas of future development cooperation include a specific focus on, but are not limited to, sub-sectors within renewable energy, fisheries, and agriculture respectively,” the statement said.

It said that while diplomatic relations between Morocco and the founding member states of the OECS began in earnest following the devastating Caribbean hurricanes of 2017, the formalisation of relations marked by the opening of the Embassies of Eastern Caribbean States in Rabat has catalysed Morocco’s emergence as an ally and a committed development partner to the independent island-nations of the OECS Economic Union.