Speeches

Excellencies,

• Dr. Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir - Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Colombia
• Dr. Edith Bastidas Calderón, Vice Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development
• Captain Francisco Arias Isaza, Director of the Marine and Coastal Research Institute - INVEMAR
• Mr. Dahong Mun, Director of the Marine Policy Office, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries of the Republic of Korea
• Hyi Seung Lee, President, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology - KIOST
• Representatives of governments, scientific institutions, regional and international organizations

Distinguished guests, friends,

For the Association of Caribbean States, the Sea is not a border that separates territories. It is the space that unites destinies.

It unites our societies, our economies, and our shared future.

And today, from Santa Marta, Colombia, we are shaping a strategic decision about that future.

The Caribbean Sea is our shared history, our identity, our main route of exchange, and an essential source of life, biodiversity, and livelihoods for millions of people.

It is also a strategic space for global environmental stability, for regional and international trade, and for the resilience of our societies in the face of an increasingly complex and uncertain international context.

The Association of Caribbean States was born from a fundamental conviction: that the 35 countries and territories of the Greater Caribbean find in the Caribbean Sea a common space from which to build cooperation, respond to shared challenges, and project a common future.

For more than three decades, the ACS has worked to consolidate the Greater Caribbean as a space for dialogue, cooperation, and concerted action in strategic areas for our peoples, including trade, transport, sustainable tourism, disaster risk reduction, and increasingly, the governance of the Caribbean Sea.

It is from this regional vision that we gather today to inaugurate the Korea-ACS Joint Ocean Research Center.

This moment therefore represents much more than the opening of a new scientific institution. It represents a strategic decision for the Greater Caribbean.

A decision to strengthen the regional capacity to produce knowledge, develop applied innovation, and collectively respond to the challenges affecting our shared maritime space, while enhancing its extraordinary resources.

This Center also represents something deeply necessary in the current context:

practical multilateralism that delivers concrete results.

Because in an international context marked by the climate crisis, pressure on the oceans, and growing inequalities in technological and scientific capacities, cooperation ceases to be solely a diplomatic principle and becomes a tool for the development, resilience, and stability of our societies.

This Center is therefore a piece of scientific diplomacy, South-South and triangular cooperation, and science-based ocean governance.

It also represents clear evidence of the value of the alliance between a Member State of the Association, the Republic of Colombia, and one of our most active and committed Observers, the Republic of Korea.

The relationship between the Republic of Korea and the ACS, which spans nearly two decades, has evolved into an increasingly strategic partnership.

Today, that relationship acquires a concrete and lasting dimension through this Center, which has the potential to become a benchmark for applied ocean research in the Greater Caribbean.

This Center matters deeply to our region because the Greater Caribbean needs more applied science, greater data interoperability, stronger climate preparedness, and better solutions for coastal communities that face daily the environmental, economic, and social impacts of the climate crisis.

The coastal communities of the Greater Caribbean are already living the consequences of this crisis.

We see it in the erosion of our coastlines, in the pressure on fisheries and tourism.

We also see it in the growing impact of sargassum on ecosystems, local economies, and livelihoods.

No country can face challenges of this nature alone.

For this reason, this Center has extraordinary strategic relevance: because it will strengthen regional capacities, generate shared scientific evidence, and advance coordinated solutions to transboundary marine challenges that directly affect the well-being of our peoples.

But this Center also matters to Korea.

Because it demonstrates that international cooperation works best when it connects real capacities with real needs.

A cooperation based on respect, knowledge exchange, and the joint construction of solutions.

A cooperation that does not reduce the Greater Caribbean to its vulnerabilities, but instead recognizes our region as a space of knowledge, strategy, and future.

I wish to express my deepest appreciation to the Government of the Republic of Korea for understanding that ocean cooperation with the Greater Caribbean can become one of the noblest and most effective forms of international partnership.

I also recognize the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, KIOST, for contributing scientific and technological capacities of enormous value to our region.

Its expertise in ocean research, data, artificial intelligence, and satellite observation can become a strategic contribution to the Greater Caribbean, particularly if we are able to translate those capacities into accessible, appropriate, and shared solutions for our peoples.

I also wish to recognize the Government of the Republic of Colombia for its diplomatic and technical leadership, as well as for making available to this initiative the scientific platform of INVEMAR, located in Santa Marta, a city and institution of enormous scientific relevance for the Greater Caribbean.

INVEMAR is not simply the host institution of this Center. It is an institution with a consolidated trajectory in oceanography and climate, marine and coastal geology, biodiversity, marine ecosystems, ocean instrumentation, and environmental information systems.

This means that this Center, which will be headquartered here, is being built upon a real, experienced scientific foundation deeply connected to the territory and realities of the Greater Caribbean.

I also extend our recognition to the ACS Member States and Associate Members, our Observers, and cooperating partners, whose support has been essential in making this collective effort possible.

This Center should not be understood solely as an academic or technical space. It should be understood as a regional platform to connect science, public policy, and international cooperation in the service of sustainable development for the Greater Caribbean.

Today we know that effective ocean governance cannot exist without solid scientific knowledge. Coastal resilience cannot exist without reliable data. And a sustainable Blue Economy cannot be consolidated without regional capacity to research, innovate, and act in a coordinated manner.

Likewise, this effort strengthens the work promoted by the Caribbean Sea Commission and our vision of consolidating the Caribbean Sea as a Special Area in the Context of Sustainable Development within the United Nations system.

Excellencies,

Allow me to say this clearly:

The Greater Caribbean is not a periphery of the global debate. It is a geopolitical, environmental, and human space of enormous relevance for the present and future of the planet.

The protection of our seas, the resilience of our coastlines, and the sustainable development of our communities are issues that transcend borders and require strategic alliances such as the one we celebrate and materialize today.

Today we inaugurate an Ocean Research Center, but most importantly, today we are affirming a vision for the future of the Greater Caribbean.

A vision in which science, innovation, and international cooperation become fundamental tools to protect our shared marine heritage and strengthen our region’s capacity to act with greater resilience, greater autonomy, and a stronger voice in global ocean governance.

Because protecting the Caribbean Sea is not only about protecting a space; it is about protecting the stability and well-being of our peoples, and of present and future generations.

Today we leave a clear message: when cooperation becomes concrete action, when science and diplomacy work in the service of people, the Greater Caribbean can become a strategic actor in the global ocean future.

Thank you very much.