A senior international relations expert is expecting no significant fallout for Caribbean Community countries that boycott next month’s Summit of the Americas over concerns about the treatment of Cuba and Venezuela by the United States of America.
In fact, senior University of the West Indies lecturer Senator Dr Kristina Hinds is not yet convinced that the event that will be held in Los Angeles, will yield much tangible outcomes for those involved.
Over the last few days, numerous countries have threatened to snub the U.S-hosted event over the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela amid concerns about authoritarianism and democracy in those countries.
In response, the president of Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador threatened to boycott the conference in solidarity with other countries in the Americas.
Within CARICOM, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne and St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves have made clear their intention to absent themselves from the summit.
Barbados TODAY has been unable to confirm whether Prime Minister Mia Mottley will attend though sources have confirmed discussions have taken place about the issue.
According to Dr Hinds, it was unfortunate that CARICOM had not taken a united position on the issue, especially given that the region enjoyed friendly relations with all of the excluded countries.
“So there is a split in CARICOM over whether states should attend or not, which is a little unfortunate given that CARICOM is supposed to have a common approach to foreign policy and we see these divisions popping up in some of these interactions with the United States of America over time,” said Dr Hinds.
“There are some who view this approach to the Summit of the Americas as divisive because within CARICOM, we have relatively good relationships with Cuba and some CARICOM members have quite good relationships with Venezuela as well and the position on Venezuela is not as straightforward in CARICOM as the U.S position.
“But there are others who would contend that this is an opportunity to put issues on the table, including how the United States of America treats to Cuba, Venezuela and other countries that they are not happy with, in terms of their democratic practices, especially because the United States has some democratic practices that require revision and serious concentration going forward after what we saw in the last election and the previous elections too,” she added.
The Summit of the Americas occurs every three years and is widely regarded as an opportunity for the U.S to shape policy and solidify partnerships in the region and up until 2015, Cuba had been excluded.
High on the agenda of this year’s talks is climate change, democracy and security, but Dr Hinds hopes to hear Caribbean leaders on issues like the delisting of Caribbean jurisdictions as tax havens and the derisking of banks in the region.
But Dr Hinds is not convinced that those who opt to stay away will find themselves at a great disadvantage.
“I don’t think there will be any repercussions. For all of the talk about how important the Summit of the Americas is, I am yet to be convinced that the summit yields particularly tangible outcomes,” the academic contended.
“In the 1990s the Summit of the Americas was supposed to be the launchpad for a free trade area in the Americas. That was never created and because of some of these tensions within the hemisphere, I think the Summit of the Americas has its limits in terms of what it truly can deliver,” she added.
Dr Hinds recalled the friction between the US and Brazil over the creation of a free trade area in the Americas, which has never come to fruition.
“There will be the usual declaration and voices of support for different things and the networking and connection across countries are valuable but in terms of policy outcomes, I am yet to see significant outcomes from the summit,” she said.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb
