During the virtual 1st Africa-CARICOM Summit, the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda called for establishing structures of cooperation to promote our mutual socio-economic interests; increasing investment and trade, and people to people exchanges between Africa and the Caribbean.

We should resist being pushed to the margins of international decision-making and collaborate on decisions to restructure the global financial architecture, on global taxation, derisking, climate change and reparations, among others.

Today, through their control of the global financial, economic and trading system, the major European nations and their North American allies, continue to hold Africa, the Caribbean and other developing countries in a trap of underdevelopment.

‘Europe underdeveloped Africa and left the Caribbean underdeveloped,’ Mr. Browne said.

This is starkly illustrated by the global control by a few rich countries of the production and distribution of vital vaccines to suppress the Covid-19 pandemic.

Whereas, 70% of the European Union and nearly 60% of US citizens are fully vaccinated, only 3% of the African continent can say the same.

‘Let´s now create the pathways of accord between Africa and the Caribbean – an agreement worthy of our historic and contemporary struggles to overcome the legacy of racism, colonialism, exploitation and global inequalities,’ Mr. Browne stated.

pgh/Pll/oda / ybv