Local News News PM, Foreign minister going to France Barbados Today07/03/2023096 views Pictured: PM Mottley and French President Emmanuel Macron greet each other at COP26 in 2021 in the presence of former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. (FP) Prime Minister Mia Mottley and her Foreign Affairs minister Kerrie Symmonds are headed to France “in a few days” to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron. This was disclosed by Symmonds in the House of Assembly on Monday as the 2023-2024 Estimates continued in that Chamber discussing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade which he heads. The minister said President Macron has “urged” that he be allowed to form part of a cooperative agreement with Barbados so that there can be a summit allowing him to use his global reach as a G7 leader to help this country advance the Bridgetown Initiative. “By no stretch of the imagination could we have envisaged that this type of relationship would have been fostered for this country ten years ago,” Symmonds told the Monday morning session of the Estimate Debate now in its third week. The debate turned its focus to the foreign affairs and foreign trade ministry which has $65 608 446 allocated for its work during the upcoming financial year. The minister’s disclosure came as he explained to the Chamber how the Bridgetown Initiative was now grabbing the world’s attention including that of the French leader. (SBP)