Above: Bridgetown (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

From Spanish language instruction to agriculture, Barbados and Chile are planning to increase their cooperation in a number of areas.

That was the pledge made following a courtesy call Monday between Barbados Foreign Minister Senator Maxine McClean and Jorge Daccarett, director general of the Chilean Agency for International Development.

Daccarrett was joined on the visit by the AGCI’s country manager for South-South cooperation, Leonardo Velasquez, and Chile’s Honorary Consul, David Harding.

“There are several programmes that we are doing and I think that we can take advantage of the synergies to work together and create better programmes with more muscle, and this is what I want to propose to CARICOM that we work together under this umbrella,” said Daccarrett, who is on a working visit to the Caribbean region.

He pointed to instruction in Spanish, which is being enhanced with Mexico to teach diplomats the language, along with initiatives in disaster training and food security.

The latter is a priority for Barbados, McClean said.

“With the concerns about food security in Barbados and the region, agriculture is taking on greater importance given all that is happening and, of course, this is an area that we would want to work more closely,” she said.

The two countries established diplomatic ties in 1967.

CARICOM and Chile held their second-ever Joint Commission in Santiago last year.