The USA and The Caribbean fix fences on energy cooperation
A meeting yesterday among US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, and foreign ministers of Caribbean Regional Trade group, Caricom, has rekindled cooperation in several areas, including energy, Caribbean officials told Argus today.
The talks ended months of division among the 15-member Caricom over the former US administration's campaign to isolate the government of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, they said.
A Jamaican government official said, "We may not go back to the specific energy co-operation projects that the Obama administration proposed, but the scene is set for a more fruitful and calmer relationship with the US”, referring to the administration of former US president Barack Obama (2009-17) who preceded Donald Trump's 2017-21 confrontational tenure. Caricom fragmented when the Trump administration convened meetings to discuss increasing pressure on Venezuela, excluding countries that questioned its sanctions policy toward Caracas.
At the start of yesterday's discussions, the trade group's secretary-general Irwin LaRocque praised the resumption of high-level meetings with the US. "I hope today's session is the start of a renewal of such encounters."
The meeting demonstrated "the US commitment to working with all countries in the region to advance bilateral and regional interests," the US state department said.
Current US president Joe Biden, who took office in January, served as Obama's vice president when the White House made a historic overture to Cuba, a longtime target of US sanctions. Havana is not a Caricom member, but the island and its Venezuelan ally still hold regional sway.
Guyana's foreign minister Hugh Todd said he told the meeting that three oil-producing Caricom members – Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname – "can help in driving the regional energy security agenda. The UN's court ICJ is adjudicating a "brief mention" of Guyana's border controversy with Venezuela, Todd said.
The project was grounded in the then-imminent start-up of US LNG exports and a new $1bn fund set up by the Inter-American Development Bank to help countries convert power plants from oil to gas.
One Obama-era project that the Trump administration abandoned was designed to enhance Caribbean energy security by expanding natural gas and renewables for power generation to replace oil.
"The intention of this proposal is still valid, although its shape and dimensions would have changed over the past five years," the Jamaican official said.
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