Mottley calls for stronger CARICOM-Africa ties

Prime Minister Mia Mottley is calling for greater movement of people, trade, education and opportunities between Africa and the Caribbean as the regions mark CARICOM-Africa Day.

In her message, Mottley pointed to progress made over the past year, including increased air links, the development of the Afreximbank African Trade Centre in Barbados and cooperation in healthcare.

She said there was still more work to be done to strengthen ties between the two regions and urged Caribbean and African people to play a role in building that relationship.

See the Prime Minister’s full CARICOM-Africa Day 2026 message below:

The Atlantic must now carry the promise of our future as surely as it carries the memory of our past.

On this CARICOM–Africa Day, one year after our first in-person summit in Addis Ababa, and on the 5th anniversary of the inaugural summit, we have meaningful progress to celebrate.

The opening of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam was a powerful reminder of what African determination can achieve. Air Peace is bringing our regions closer. In Barbados, the Afreximbank African Trade Centre at Jemmotts Lane is taking shape, while Ethiopian medical professionals are strengthening care at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Ghana secured historic UN recognition of the trafficking and racialised enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity. Togo’s successful UN resolution calls for maps that properly reflect Africa’s size. In Accra, our pursuit of reparations advanced with the establishment of the Global Advisory Panel on Reparatory Justice, on which I am honoured to serve.

These achievements must inspire greater action. There is still much to do to make travel, trade, education and opportunity flow more freely between us.

Too many voices tell us what divides us. We need more voices willing to show what unites us.

Across Africa and the Caribbean, I call on our people to embrace this reunion and help build it. Its promise belongs to every one of us.

Across the waters we must build a new passage of possibility, carrying our people, our ideas and our enterprise towards shared prosperity. Built in our own name. Guided by our own vision.

Our ancestors were denied the right to choose their destination. Our duty is to ensure their descendants can shape their destiny.