Above: CARICOM headquarters
By the Caribbean Journal staff
Argentina has named Luis Alberto Martino its first-ever resident Ambassador to the Caribbean Community.
Martino presented his letters of credence to CARICOM Secretary General Irwin LaRocque on Monday.
“My country is in the process of expanding and strengthening its presence in the Caribbean region,” he said at his opening address. “The first steps in this direction were the decisions by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to re-open our embassies in Guyana and Barbados and to establish new ones in Saint Lucia and Suriname. These initiatives are part of the larger policy of closer cooperation with the region, as well as the political process within CELAC.”
Martino said Argentina’s initiative in the Caribbean was at the heart of the country’s plan to achieve greater “regional, sub-regional and bi-regional integration.”
He said Argentina also planned to begin working toward the implementation of an agreement to establish a standing joint commission to cover areas of cooperation including “the political, commercial, economic, scientific, technical and cultural areas.”