CARICOM staying away from China-US Cold War
A Congressional group led by ranking member Joaquin Castro had formally written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that a high-level delegation attend this week’s three-day CARICOM leaders summit in Barbados from Wednesday to begin reversing China’s emerging dominant role in the region.
Speaking to reporters at home on Monday, Bahamian Prime Minister Phillip Davis says the region has no intention of being caught in the middle of an ideological spat between the two and will remain as a non-aligned party here.
“CARICOM is not going to get involved in the geopolitical issues between superpowers. We have always taken a position of being unaligned with respect to those matters, and I think that should continue,” he told reporters.
The local media had been seeking an explanation from the government after a recent letter from the Congressional representatives and after American Chargé d’Affairesd’Affaires Kimberley Furnish at Grand Bahama Business Outlook in Freeport on Thursday.
She had argued that it was imperative that the Bahamas and other Caribbean nations “resist” China’s influence, arguing that China promises much but “delivers little.”
Replying to the diplomat, Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell said in a statement that the Bahamas has no plans to be involved in any action involving the two superpowers.
“We are not involved, nor do we see ourselves as engaged in or part of any ideological war or geopolitical brinkmanship. There is no evidence to support the view that this country is being used as a platform by China to attack the United States. We would not be a party to any such effort,” he said.
“To state the obvious, we are fifty miles off the coast of the United States with an import-based economy, where, for example, 90 % of the food we eat is sourced by the United States.
Almost every Bahamian has a family member who is American,” he said, noting that “we have significant cultural and family ties with the people of the United States. Almost every Bahamian has a family member who is American. We have diplomatic relations with China just as the United States does. We do not interfere in China’s internal affairs, and they do not interfere with ours.”
The lawmakers reminded Rubio that the region is the US’s third border and would do well to receive the attention it deserves, given its close proximity to trade and security matters.
