ACS Secretary General, Ambassador Luis Fernando Andrade Falla (left) meets with CARICOM Secretary General, H.E. Edwin Carrington, at the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana

Port of Spain (January 20, 2009) – Association of Caribbean States (ACS) Secretary General, Ambassador Luis Fernando Andrade Falla made an official visit to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana on 16 January, to hold talks with CARICOM Secretary General, His Excellency Edwin Carrington.

Among the issues discussed at the meeting were cooperation between the CARICOM and ACS Secretariats, the Fifth Summit of the Americas Meeting, and recent ACS activities.

During a joint press conference held at the end of the meeting, ACS Secretary General emphasised that his visit was a “working session” to advance closer relations between the two zones of cooperation.

He referred to the upcoming Summit of the Americas, calling it a unique opportunity for regional groupings to voice their collective concerns in a “coherent and solidified way that would draw the commitment of the new US administration to our positions”. The Summit of the Americas Meeting takes place in April 2009 in Trinidad & Tobago - a Member State of both CARICOM and the ACS.

CARICOM Secretary General Carrington said that he is impressed with Ambassador Andrade, noting that Andrade has breathed new life into cooperation between the two organizations.  He added that CARICOM is looking forward to deepening ties with the ACS, particularly in the areas of trade, transport, tourism and disaster management.

In acknowledging that the Prime Minister of Belize, the Honourable Dean Barrow was now the Chairman of CARICOM, Ambassador Andrade said that he was expecting that Prime Minister Barrow would forge closer ties between CARICOM and other groupings within the wider Caribbean including the Latin American Economic System (SELA), Central American Integration System (SICA) and the Central American Economic Integration System (SIECA).

The ACS Secretary General also reported on his recent official visit to Finland and his discussions with Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb on proposed areas of cooperation, especially in the areas of disaster preparedness, climate change and reforestation.

CARICOM was declared a Founding Observer of the ACS in 1996.  The other five Founding Observers are Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), SELA, SICA, SIECA. The Founding Observers were instrumental to the formation of the ACS and these organisations enrich the work of the ACS Ministerial Council and the Special Committees.