Statements and Declarations

The Fourth Meeting of the Project Advisory Group (PAG) for the European Union-funded project on "Strengthening the Institutional Response to HIV/AIDS/STI in the Caribbean" will take place in Georgetown, Guyana, on Friday 15 February 2002. This regional project is being financed through the resources of the 8th European Development Fund in the amount of EUR 6.9 million and is executed by the CARICOM Secretariat. The overarching goal is to reduce the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS/STI in the 15 CARIFORUM Member States.

Mr. Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of both CARICOM and the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States, will chair the Opening Session of the Caribbean Regional Seminar in preparation for Negotiations of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union, scheduled to take place at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel on 14-16 February 2002.

Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) signed four Instruments at their Thirteenth Inter-Sessional Meeting in Belize City, Belize to fast track the full implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).  The Instruments signed were_ Protocol on the Provisional Application of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism, Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, Agreement Establishing the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ).

Acting upon the invitation of the Prime Minister of Belize, Heads of States and/ or Governments of the States Members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and of the Central American Integration System (SICA) and the Dominican Republic as an Observer State, met in Belize City on Tuesday, 5 February 2002, in an historic First Summit between the Parties.

We, the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, meeting in Special (Emergency) Session in The Bahamas, 11-12 October, 2001, to undertake consultations on the grave situation confronting our nations as a consequence of the terrorist attacks in the United States of America on 11 September 2001 and its aftermath_

Recognise that these dastardly acts have exacerbated an incipient global economic crisis which threatened international peace and security.

  We the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community_

COGNIZANT of the critical role of health in the economic development of our people and overawed by the prospect that our current health problems, especially HIV/AIDS, may impede such development through the devastation of our human capital;

RECOGNIZING that the escalation of these health problems is evidence of the deficiencies of our approaches, thus requiring the re-orientating and restructuring of the Health Services;

Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Freeport, Grand Bahama, Bahamas, during their 22^nd Conference, engaged in an exchange of views on the political crisis in the Republic of Haiti, which emanated from the 21 May 2000 elections in that country.

(i) The Recent Venezuela Oil Facility Offer

The Bureau welcomed the offer of the Government of Venezuela of an Energy Accord (the Caracas Energy Accord) to supplement the existing San Jose Agreement, thereby providing additional support on a bilateral basis to several oil-importing countries in the Caribbean and Central America.

The Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community meeting in its Seventh Special Session at Chaguaramas, Trinidad and Tobago on 26-27 October 1999;

Having deliberated on a Vision for the future of the Region, and recognising the need for ensuring that the integration of the Region must be made more meaningful for its people, especially the Youth, adopted the Consensus of Chaguaramas as follows_