High level representatives convene for ACS Meeting
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, March 4th, 2015 - The 20th Ordinary Meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) which is scheduled to take place on 10th March in La Antigua, Guatemala, will convene high level delegates including Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Member States, Vice Ministers, Representatives of International Organisations and Ambassadors.
The Honourable Carlos Raúl Morales, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala and current Chair of the Ministerial Council will welcome six (6) fellow Ministers and Secretaries of Foreign Affairs; the Honourable Wilfred Peter Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belize; the Honourable María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia; the Honourable Andrés Navarro García, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic; the Honourable Pierre Duly Brutus, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Haiti; the Honourable Arturo Corrales Álvarez, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Honduras, and the Honourable José Antonio Meade Kuribeña, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico.
Additional high level participants include seven (7) Vice Ministers, among them; Lawrence Sylvester, Vice Minister of Belize; Carlos Ramiro Martínez, Vice Minister of Guatemala; Cesar R. Dargam Espaillat, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Affairs and Trade Negotiations of the Dominican Republic; Alexander Gabriel Yanez Deleuze, Venezuela’s Vice Minister for Latin America and the Caribbean, Roberto Ochoa Madrid, Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Honduras, and Vanessa Rubio Márquez, Mexico’s Under-Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Regional Ambassadors representing their respective Member Countries will also comprise the delegations present at the Meeting. The International Organizations that will be in attendance include the Central American Commission of Maritime Transport (COCATRAM), the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Among the Meeting’s principal activities is the appointment of an Executive Board of the Ministerial Council consisting of a Chairman, two Vice Chairmen and a Rapporteur. The Board provides guidance and ensures follow-up and coordination in the implementation of the Association’s Work Programme.
Additionally, Executive Boards of the Special Committees of Trade Development and External Economic Relations, Transport, Sustainable Tourism, Disaster Risk Reduction and Budget and Administration as well as the Council of National Representatives of the Special Fund will be elected to function for the period 2015-2016.
The Association of Caribbean States is the organization for consultation, cooperation and concerted action in trade, transport, sustainable tourism and natural disasters in the Greater Caribbean. Its Member States are Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela. Its Associate Members are Aruba, Curacao, (France on behalf of French Guiana, Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin ), Guadeloupe, Martinique, Sint Maarten, (The Netherlands on behalf of Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius ), Turks and Caicos.