Speeches

Good morning.

Allow me to begin by thanking the Government of Mexico and the Government of the State of Quintana Roo for hosting us here in Cancún, and for the commitment they have shown in the face of one of the most urgent challenges confronting our region.

I also thank the European Union and all those who have contributed to making this fourth EU–Caribbean Conference on Sargassum possible.

It is particularly meaningful to address you because the Association of Caribbean States, the ACS, arrives in Cancún following a process of reflection and coordination among our countries.

We come to share a position built from the Greater Caribbean on a problem that is transforming our coasts and that demands increasingly urgent decisions.

The ACS brings together 35 States and territories. Mexico, our host, is one of our founding States. Our membership has the unique characteristic of bringing together all countries and territories with coasts on the Caribbean Sea, forming the Greater Caribbean, whose diversity includes islands, large continental countries, and all of Central America. This enormous wealth also means that the impacts of sargassum are not distributed uniformly and that we do not all have the same capacities to respond.

Therefore, when we speak of sargassum, we are not simply speaking of what happens on our beaches. We are speaking of an environmental, social, and economic challenge for the Greater Caribbean.

And here there is a responsibility that we must assume.

For more than a decade, we have studied this phenomenon. Our countries have invested resources in developing research, monitoring systems, technologies, collection experiences, and alternatives for its use. Today, we know much more than we did ten years ago, and we can anticipate the arrival of sargassum on our coasts.

But after all these years, we must ask ourselves a question with absolute frankness:

Will we be able to transform all that knowledge and those national capacities into a true regional response capacity?

Because there is a paradox that is difficult to justify: our collective capacity to act remains below our capacity to observe the problem.

There is also a dimension of inequality that we cannot ignore. In a region with enormous differences in size, income, and institutional capacity, a fragmented response inevitably means that some will be able to prepare and respond better than others.

We cannot allow a phenomenon that we share to end up deepening the inequalities that already exist among our countries and, above all, among our communities.

We need regional coordination, to identify common priorities, articulate capacities, agree on where joint action adds value, and sustain that articulation over time.

And to build that coordination, we do not need to start from scratch.

We have the ACS, the only intergovernmental organization whose coverage spans the entire Caribbean Basin and makes it possible to bring different national and territorial realities together around the same table.

With that vision, our members established in 2025 the Subcommission on Sargassum of the Caribbean Sea Commission, as a permanent mechanism for regional coordination.

Two weeks ago, we met in Caracas with this Conference on the horizon. On that occasion, I said that the Greater Caribbean should not come to Cancún merely to participate. We had to come with our own voice, built from what our countries are experiencing, from the solutions they are developing, and from what we need to transform.

And that is what we bring to this Conference today.

The Common Position on Sargassum in the Greater Caribbean, available on our website, is based on a fundamental conviction: national action remains indispensable, but we must convert the experiences and knowledge of our countries into a regional capacity for action.

That position sets out three priorities:

First, to move toward an integrated and science-based response, strengthening data exchange, monitoring, and early warning, and addressing the full sargassum cycle.

Second, to connect and expand the solutions that our own countries are developing and translate that learning into policies and regulatory frameworks that make it possible to scale up solutions and develop sustainable value chains.

And third, to move toward financing and implementation. We need to mobilize resources for research, innovation, technology, infrastructure, and concrete projects. To that end, the ACS has presented the proposal “Strengthening the Greater Caribbean to Address Future Sargassum Influxes in the 2026–2030 Period.”

It is precisely here that this Conference can make a difference.

Sargassum poses an enormous challenge, but the search for solutions also opens opportunities of mutual interest for the Greater Caribbean and the European Union in areas such as innovation, technological development, investment, and the construction of sustainable value chains.

Global Gateway can help connect capacities, knowledge, and solutions that are already emerging in our region with investment, technology, and new spaces for cooperation.

To achieve this full potential, the international dimension must meet the regional architecture and, fundamentally, the priorities defined by those of us who live this reality every day.

The Greater Caribbean must have its own voice in decisions that affect the Greater Caribbean.

On that basis, this Conference opens a range of possibilities for building a more structured relationship between the Greater Caribbean and the European Union around sargassum: mobilizing investment and financing, bringing technology closer, promoting solutions, and creating opportunities that can benefit both regions.

There is a complementarity that we must seize: knowledge, experience, and solutions built from within the region itself; the European Union brings technology, investment instruments, and financing; and the ACS and its Subcommission offer the intergovernmental space to articulate priorities and provide regional continuity to this cooperation.

For this reason, our members have expressly invited the European Union, Global Gateway, and other partners to work with the Association to turn this complementarity into projects, investments, and concrete solutions.

And in this effort, Mexico has an important role to play.

It is a founding member of our Association, has significant scientific and institutional capacities, and has demonstrated political will to move from managing the problem toward building solutions.

From the ACS, we believe that Mexico has the conditions to drive this effort and exercise regional leadership.

Excellencies,

distinguished representatives,

dear friends:

Before concluding, I would like to return to a phrase shared by Governor Mara Lezama during the opening of this Conference, which compels us to look beyond the immediate discussion of these days:

“Without the sea, there is no planet.”

That phrase obliges us to remember what truly lies behind all the conversations we have had during these days.

We have spoken about tons of sargassum, monitoring, technologies, collection, financing, investment, and value chains. All of this is indispensable. But at its core, we are speaking about the health of a natural system on which our communities, our economies, and our very lives depend.

Of course, we are concerned about what is happening on our beaches. Their deterioration directly affects tourism, which sustains jobs, generates income, and enables millions of people in our region to make a living. But this goes far beyond the image of our beaches.

We are speaking about marine and coastal ecosystems; about fishers whose livelihoods depend on them; about entire communities built around the sea; about food security and national economies deeply linked to this space that we share.

And the sea reminds us of something fundamental: we are profoundly interdependent.

We can establish national jurisdictions and organize our responsibilities around them, as is appropriate. But sargassum does not stop at those borders.

For that reason, responding to sargassum is also a test of our capacity to jointly govern the Caribbean Sea.

Two weeks ago, in Caracas, we said that we wanted to arrive in Quintana Roo with a voice of our own from the Greater Caribbean.

Today, that voice exists.

Our members have agreed on the common position and have defined the priorities on which they are prepared to work.

Now it is time to turn that position into action.

Cancún will have made a difference if, when this Conference ends, we are able to maintain this coordination; if knowledge reaches decision-making; if cooperation and investment respond to the region’s priorities; if the experiences that are yielding results find pathways to be expanded; and if, the next time sargassum moves toward our coasts, it finds us more connected, better prepared, and truly acting as the Greater Caribbean.

Because the response must be built from the Greater Caribbean, with the Greater Caribbean, and for the Greater Caribbean.

And when we speak of protecting the Caribbean Sea, we are not speaking only of protecting a resource or preserving the beauty of our coasts.

We are speaking of protecting communities, livelihoods, ecosystems, and economies; in other words, our possibility of development.

It means assuming together the responsibility to care for and better govern that space which makes so much of our life possible and reminds us, every day, that what unites us is far greater than what separates us.

Thank you very much.