By Vishani Ragobeer
India, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, is keen on deepening ties with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his country is ready to support the bloc as needed.
CARICOM leaders and Indian Prime Minister Modi met on Wednesday for the second CARICOM- India Summit, hosted at the Marriott Hotel in Kingston, Georgetown.
Minister Modi is in Guyana on a State visit this week.
And during the opening ceremony of the summit, the Indian Prime Minister outlined seven areas the South Asian country is ready to assist the region in. Those thematic areas correspond with the letters of CARICOM.
The supply of passenger and cargo ferries, the provision of an additional 1,000 training scholarships, sharing agriculture and digital technologies and providing support in renewable energy development and healthcare are among the offers Prime Minister Modi extended to the regional leaders.
His offer of supplying passenger and cargo ferries to the region, in particular, was met with rousing applause. On this front, he said Caribbean nations are not merely small island developing states but large ocean countries and as such, India sees the value of providing the support needed.
Prime Minister Modi also acknowledged that the cricket relationship is also very important to his country, not only because India won the T20 worldcup in the Caribbean earlier this year, but because it is believed that the sport is a greater unifier.
Modi said India is ready to provide training for women cricketers drawn from across CARICOM.
“All of these are based on your priorities and your needs. That is India’s mode of cooperation,” Prime Minister Modi said in the Marriott Grand Ballroom.
Guyana’s President, Dr. Irfaan Ali and his regional colleague, Dickon Mitchell, who is the Grenadian Prime Minister and current CARICOM chairman, both expressed gratitude for India’s support over the years.
President Ali pointed out that India has championed the cause of Guyana and other Caribbean nations globally when defending the rights of developing nations and the global south.
And for Prime Minister Mitchell, India’s leadership is what will help small countries confront pervasive issues.
“The challenegs we face can only be addressed through a spirit of deeper integration and cooperation,” Mitchell said.
Bilateral ties between CARICOM and India started to formalise in 1985, though individual member states already established bilateral relations with the South Asian country. Since the early 2000s, there have been concerted efforts at deepening ties between CARICOM and India.
And in 2019, at the sidelines of the United National General Assembly, the first-ever CARICOM- India Summit was held. Prime Minister Modi met with the Caribbean leaders then, offering substantial support to the region in the form of financial aid for renewable energy and climate change project. India also offered to support the region with training and other capacity building efforts.
Work between the region and India continued over the years and on Wednesday, the second CARICOM- India Summit took place, in Guyana.
Notably, this is the first time this summit is being held in a CARICOM Member State. Not only that, this summit being held in Guyana is significant because the nation is one of the founding members of CARICOM and it is where the headquarters of CARICOM, its secretariat, is located.
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