OECS leaders set to meet next week

Leaders of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) will hold a two-day summit in Antigua next week.

They will be discussing a wide range of issues ranging from climate change to regional cooperation.

The leaders of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands will meet on 18-19 June.

They will meet under incoming chairman Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines, who replaces St Lucia’s Prime Minister Allen Chastanet.

The summit, the highest decision-making body of the OECS, is expected to be attended by all leaders of the sub-regional grouping who will discuss matters related to climate change, trade, border security, external representation, applications for membership and other areas of regional priority.

Established on 18 June 1981 under the Treaty of Basseterre, the OECS is responsible for promoting greater co-operation among Member States to “achieve the fullest possible harmonisation of foreign policy…to establish the Economic Union as a single economic and financial space…to discuss and facilitate constitutional, political and economic changes necessary for the successful development of member states and their successful participation in regional and global economies…”.

The French island of Martinique enjoys observer status within the grouping.