Johnson Smith leads Jamaican delegation to CARICOM-India Summit in Guyana

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson Smith is heading a Jamaican delegation to the second summit of CARICOM leaders and India.

The CARICOM-India Summit is being co-chaired by Dickon Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada and current Chair of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government, and India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, in Georgetown, Guyana, on Wednesday.

Johnson Smith said Jamaica looks forward to focusing on shared priorities including energy and infrastructure, agriculture and food security, health and pharmaceuticals, technology and innovation, as well as human resources and capacity-building.

“Having recently participated in Prime Minister Holness' historic visit to India, the first bilateral visit made by a Jamaican Prime Minister to that country, we look forward to strengthening ties even further through wider regional engagement,” added Johnson Smith.

She further notes that strengthening people-to-people connections between India and the CARICOM region would also be a central point of interest, given the close to 190 years of integration of Indians across the region.

Headlines Delivered to Your Inbox

Sign up for The Gleaner’s morning and evening newsletters.

“This Summit offers invaluable opportunities to reinforce India's role as a key development partner for CARICOM Member States. The areas for discussion are of importance to all CARICOM citizens, and intersect in several aspects with our fruitful and productive bilateral engagements in India. We will therefore seek to follow up and build on areas identified both during Prime Minister Holness' visit to India, as well as the CARICOM-India Joint Commission Meeting held earlier this month”, Johnson Smith said.

The inaugural CARICOM-India Summit was held in New York in 2019, on the margins of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.