A unified Community, competitive in the global arena; enabling resilience and improved quality of life, underlie the strategic objective of the Directorate for Foreign and Community Relations.

Coordination of foreign and external relations

Essential to the work of the Directorate is safeguarding and promoting the Community’s interests within the global environment[1]. This is done through the coordination of foreign and external relations evidenced, inter alia, by:

• positioning CARICOM in the international environment;
• facilitating collaboration, cooperation and strategic alliances with Third States; and
• understanding and advocating  for the special needs of small open states, sensitive to external shocks of all sorts.

In this context, the Directorate provides support to the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR); the Community Organ which determines the relations between the Community and international organizations and Third States. The COFCOR also promotes the development of friendly and mutually beneficial relations among Member States.

Specifically, the Directorate works to ensure effective coordination at the national level, that is, between Foreign and line ministries; and at the Community level, with Member States, the Secretariat and Community Institutions.

The Directorate’s work helps influence policy and informed decision making through the timely and consistent information exchange with the Community’s stakeholders (Member States, the Secretariat and Institutions. It helps also to represent, brand, advocate; leverage the common voice and Community vote. In this way, it enable the Community to grasp opportunities in, and minimize the threats posed by global environment.

Community Relations

Foreign policy coordination and external relations remain a principal objective of CARICOM. Of equal importance is deepening the integration movement and building its resilience to facilitate a socially cohesive Community.

To this end, governance, meditation in conflict situations and electoral observation are essential aspects of the  Directorate's work. Similarly, is its work to enhance the Community’s relations between Member States and with its Associate Members.

[1] Increasingly, the global environment is made up  of new players/non-state actors such as International corporations; Institutions (regional int’l); professional/sectoral organizations; NGOs/Civil Society; media; celebrities interdependence and interconnectedness - ICT & globalisation; the integrating network of accepted international normative frameworks that are part of global governance.

[2] Link present composition of the COFCOR

Tags: INTERNATIONAL SECURITY(1) ,FOREIGN POLICY(55) ,FOREIGN AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS(26) ,COMMUNITY RELATIONS(88)