CARICOM COFCOR AND COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEET SINCE TODAY IN PORT OF SPAIN

Georgetown, May 14- Trinidad and Tobago will be the venue this week for two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ministerial Council meetings.

The Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) will meet since today 14th and Wednesday 15th while the Community Council will meet on Thursday 16th. Both meetings will be at the Trinidad Hilton Hotel and Conference Centre in Port of Spain.

COFCOR, which comprises of the Foreign Ministers of the Member States, will have a formal opening session on Monday evening, with the working sessions beginning on Tuesday morning on a 13 point substantive agenda. The COFCOR will review the Community’s strategic bilateral relationships including those with countries in North and Latin America, Europe, Asia and the wider Caribbean.

The Ministers will hold discussions with the Foreign Ministers of New Zealand and the Dominican Republic as well as the Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and Special Envoy of the Government of Japan.

Among other items on the agenda are international development cooperation, preparing a co-ordinated approach to 2013 and 2014 multilateral engagements with a focus on hemispheric and international organisations and matters relating to community relations including an update on the situation in the Turks and Caicos Islands which is an Associate Member of the Community.

The Community Council’s main focus in their one-day meeting on Thursday 16th will be on preparations for the 34th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government scheduled for Port of Spain from 4-6 July 2013. That meeting begins on the date of the 40th Anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas which established CARICOM. Community Council will review and approve the agenda for the Heads of Government Meeting and will receive an update on the arrangements being put in place.

The Council will also consider issues related to the reform process in CARICOM including work being done on a Community Strategic Plan and progress of the change process at the CARICOM Secretariat. Matters before the Inter-Governmental Task Force preparing amendments to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas will also engage the attention of the Council which comprises of Ministers with responsibility for CARICOM Affairs.

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