Suriname not ready for political 'union'
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| Published on Thursday, August 28, 2008 |
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By Ivan Cairo
Caribbean Net News Suriname Correspondent
Email: ivan@caribbeannetnews.com
PARAMARIBO, Suriname: While the government is not opposing the idea of a political union among Caricom member states, Suriname is not ready to join such union, a government minister here told reporters Wednesday.
Seeking support for his initiative for a political union in the region Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Patrick Manning paid a whirlwind visit to Suriname to present his idea to Suriname president Ronald Venetiaan.
According to minister of Foreign Affairs, Lygia Kraag-Keteldijk, during his encounter with Venetiaan, Manning presented a copy of the agreement he signed recently with the leaders of Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Lucia to set up a political union by 2013.
Venetiaan noted that he will forward the agreement to his advisers and experts before he would respond to Manning’s request to join the initiative.
According to Kraag-Keteldijk, Manning argued that his proposal won’t be detrimental to the structure of Caricom, which is championing the idea to advance economic integration in the Caribbean.
“Prime Minister Manning has asked President Venetiaan to study the agreement but no deadline were set when the Suriname government should announce its position,” said the minister speaking to journalists before the weekly cabinet meeting Wednesday in Paramaribo.
While she doesn’t know the extent of the Manning initiative as yet, Kraag-Keteldijk argued that “at this point in time I am not ready to support the initiative for a political integration with other nations”.
“Currently we are involved in the economic integration within Caricom and with a political integration you will lose some of your sovereignty and I’m of the opinion that we should study this very carefully, while a strong and wide popular support should be necessary, since this issue doesn’t concern only the government,” she further noted.
Meanwhile the government of Jamaica and Belize have indicated that their country will not be involved in the political union being proposed by Manning. | | | | Reads : 388 |
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