The Eighteenth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, was held in Montego Bay, Jamaica, on 30 June-4 July 1997.

Positioning the Caribbean for the Twenty-First Century

We, the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, assembled for the Eighteenth Meeting of our Conference, in Montego Bay, Jamaica, on 4 July 1997;

Recalling the historic gathering of fifty years ago in this city, when an earlier generation of West Indian leaders sought to prepare their countries for the new world, then emerging after the Second World War, with its prospect of decolonization and freedom for all peoples;

INTRODUCTION

EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE COUNTRY

BRIDGETOWN DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES AND PLAN OF ACTION

The Eighth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, was held in St. John=s, Antigua and Barbuda, on 20-21 February 1997 with an Opening Ceremony on the evening of 19 February 1997.

Heads of Government, at their Fifth Special Meeting held in Barbados on 16 December 1996 reviewed the issues of co-operation between the United States and Governments of the Caribbean Community in the fight against the illicit drug trade within the broad context of U.S./CARICOM relations.

The Seventeenth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was held in Bridgetown, Barbados, from 3 to 6 July 1996.