Above: US Vice President Joe Biden

By the Caribbean Journal staff

United States Vice President Joe Biden will be hosting the first-ever Caribbean Energy Security Summit later this month.

The summit will be held in Washington, DC on Jan. 26.

“The Vice President looks forward to welcoming Caribbean leaders and representatives of the international community to promote a cleaner and more sustainable energy future in the Caribbean through improved energy governance, greater access to finance, and donor coordination,” the White House said in a statement.

The summit will include remarks by Biden, an energy security roundtable, along with meetings and events with government officials and private sector representatives, among others.

Biden announced a Caribbean Energy Security Initiative during a visit to Trinidad and Tobago in June of 2014, and the White House said the summit would be a “key component: of that initiative.

The White House and the State Department will host the summit, in partnership with the Atlantic Council and the Council of the Americas.

Biden has been the White House’s most active official in the Caribbean region, having visited several times, most recently to the Dominican Republic in June. The Vice President also frequently vacations in the United States Virgin Islands.

By contrast, US President Barack Obama has visited the Caribbean just once in office, on the occasion of the Summit of the Americas in 2009.