Foreign Minister Brantley Attends Special COFOR in the Margins of the UN General Assembly

New York, 26th September 2019 –The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of CARICOM gathered today in New York for their Twelfth Special Meeting of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR). This Special Meeting is a regular feature in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

The Region’s top diplomats deliberated on the five UN High Level Meetings (HLMs) on Climate Action, Universal Health Coverage (UHC), Sustainable Development, Financing for Development and the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway.

The Ministers also discussed the status of the BBNJ negotiations, and engaged with third states including Singapore and Ireland.

Chief amongst the issues for the St. Kitts and Nevis Delegation, was blacklisting which, Foreign Minister Brantley described “as a unilateral and unfair practice by the European Union, imposed on sovereign states, and which our region continues to challenge.”

Minister Brantley and his CARICOM Colleagues also engaged with the Foreign Minister of Norway, a Former Prime Minister of Canada and Under-Secretary of State of the United States.

This Special COFCOR forms part of the Foreign Minister’s packed schedule this week, with a meeting on De-risking and Correspondent Banking, and Foreign Ministers Meetings of the CELAC, Commonwealth and G77 to follow.