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OAS AND ACS SEEK TO MOVE COOPERATION TO NEW LEVE

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) today reaffirmed that they will intensify their cooperation in key areas of mutual interest, notably climate change and disaster mitigation.

“We are very much committed to that,” said OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin of the latest effort of the Washington-based organization to strengthen its relationship with another sub-regional institution. Ramdin made the comments as he chaired a joint briefing session where ACS Secretary General Luis Fernando Andrade Falla also addressed OAS Member State ambassadors, who in turn engaged the visiting ACS leader in discussions on key issues of interest to the member states of both groupings.

Ambassador Ramdin highlighted the urgency of the climate change and natural disaster issues, saying the Summit of the Americas to be held next April in Trinidad and Tobago—where the ACS is headquartered—will provide a unique platform for the host government as well as ACS member states to talk further about climate change, global warming and the impact of natural disasters on countries.

A concrete OAS-ACS collaboration program will be developed, Ramdin said. He reported that technical discussions have already begun between the two secretariats, and that today’s meeting at OAS headquarters sought to explore, at the political level, mechanisms and areas in which both institutions could pursue meaningful collaboration. He noted that many ACS mandates are very relevant to the OAS Member States themselves and to the OAS as an institution, and hence the importance of the proposed stepped-up cooperation.

As well, the Assistant Secretary General stressed the importance of fostering more people-to-people relationships in the region, and he offered that the hemispheric body “can play a role” given its strong relationships with SICA and CARICOM, sub-regions represented in both the OAS and in the ACS.

Briefing the OAS diplomats, the ACS Secretary General touched on the centrality of the Caribbean Sea as “what unites us as members of the ACS.” Andrade explained that “sustainable development depends on the viability of the Caribbean Sea, which is also affected by natural disaster and climate change issues. “The very viability of our countries rests on our capacity to mitigate disasters,” he asserted, warning of alarming environmental deterioration that he said is supported by scientific evidence.

Ambassador Andrade further noted his organization’s potential to bring countries together in serving “millions of people whose wellbeing and development depend on the marine ecosystem and tourism that are now at serious risk.” He said Caribbean and Central American countries have felt the hardest impact of natural disasters in recent times, their gross domestic product (GDP) taking a huge loss. “We therefore have something that is of interest to all of us,” the ACS Secretary General told the hemispheric diplomats at the OAS headquarters, stressing the need for closer cooperation between the institutions.

Reference: E-408/08