Regional academic urges united front in response to Rubio's visit

 

With US Secretary of State Marco Rubio set to travel to Jamaica this week, a former senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies is urging CARICOM to present a unified front on issues affecting the region.

 

The US Secretary of State will also travel to Jamaica, Guyana and Suriname to advance President Trump's foreign policy priorities in the Caribbean.

 

While in Jamaica, the Secretary will also hold bilateral engagements with heads of government from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti.

 

Professor Mark Kirton, a former Senior Lecturer at the Institute of International Relations at UWI in St Augustine, believes the Trump administration could push a complex agenda on the region, "starting maybe from the most recent decision of the US to look for the removal of Cuban medical brigades, which has significantly positively impacted and supported the governments of the region." 

 

He said the Americans' claim that the Cuban medical programme in the region is a form human trafficking "must be addressed frontally."

 

Professor Kirton says there must be consensus on addressing critical issues such as regional security, starting with "an enhanced Regional Security System (RSS), broadened to include countries like Jamaica and Trinidad (& Tobago), and the establlishment of a strategic deterrence force."