Above: Santiago

By the Caribbean Journal staff

St Lucia and Chile say they are making a commitment to strengthening bilateral ties.

Last week, St Lucia Governor General Dame Pearlette Louisy accepted the credentials of Chile’s new Ambassador to the country, Eduardo Bonilla, who

The two sides have deepened ties over the year as Chile has moved to engage the wider Caribbean community.

Over the last two decades, the South American country has contributed “tremendously” to St Lucia’s development, the government said in a statement, in areas like agriculture, Spanish language and diplomacy training.

“Saint Lucia has benefitted from Chile’s bi-lateral cooperation with CARICOM States and we look with eager anticipation to greater collaboration between the region and Chile within the framework of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States,” Louisy said in a release.

At the beginning of 2012, CARICOM and Chile held their second-ever joint commission in Santiago, following the formalization of ties between the Caribbean Community and Chile in 1996.