Belize’s Foreign Minister Assumes Chairmanship of SICA’s Council of Foreign Ministers
The Dominican Republic has officially handed over the chairmanship of the Council of Foreign Ministers of Central American Integration System (SICA) to Belize. Roberto Alvarez, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Dominican Republic and Werner Vargas, the Secretary General of SICA, arrived in Belize on Tuesday on an official visit. During their two-day stay, Alvarez and Vargas engaged in a series of meetings with Senator Eamon Courtenay, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. On Tuesday, Minister Alvarez officially handed over the chairmanship of the Council of Foreign Affairs of SICA to Minister Courtenay. News Five’s Paul Lopez was in Belmopan this morning. He filed the following report.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Dominican Republic, Roberto Alvarez was in Belize for two days to officially hand over the Chairmanship of the Council of Foreign Ministers of SICA to Senator Eamon Courtenay, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Belize.
Eamon Courtenay
Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Affairs
“We have welcomed both the secretary general and Minister Alvarez to Belize yesterday in which we had a briefing yesterday evening, where we briefed the diplomatic core and representatives of international organizations on the work of SICA, the ongoing work of SICA. We also had the formal transfer of the Chairmanship of the Council of Foreign Ministers from the Dominican Republic in the person of Minister Alvarez to Belize and to myself the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belize.”
This morning, Minister Courtenay called a press conference at the Leigh Richardson Building in Belmopan and highlighted the importance of Belize’s geographical location as a bridge to Central America and the CARICOM.
Roberto Alvarez
Roberto Alvarez, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dominican Republic
“I have been in Belize since yesterday and as the foreign minister has said, we met yesterday and had a very productive meeting with and in the transfer of the presidency of the Central American Integration system and we continue today with our bilateral conversations on the issues that the foreign minister has pointed out. We consider Belize not only a very import partner within the system, but an essential one because of the particular role that Belize plays as the bridge between our Central American system and the CARICOM.”
Also at the head table was Werner Vargas, SICA’s Secretary General. He was elected under Alvarez’s chairmanship, at a time when SICA had been without a Secretary General for over a year. Alvarez’s leadership was primarily focused on strengthening the institutions within the system. Electing a SICA Secretary General was an act to that end.
Werner Vargas
Werner Vargas, Secretary General, SICA
“I am sorry my English is not good, I prefer speaking in Spanish. Good Morning, we fully support as SICA this PPT during this semester and especially we congratulate for the strong leadership by the minister of Belize during the six months and the strong relations between SICA and CARICOM systems.”
Roberto Alvarez
“We found out that for example there are twenty-eight different organs. I don’t even remember how many secretariats, but a large number of secretariats. A total of about seventy-eight different institutions. There had been over three hundred, a number of them were eliminated or consolidated.”
Building on the work of the Dominican Republic, Minister Courtenay hopes to focus on the issue of food security, post pandemic.
Eamon Courtenay
“One of the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic is the massive interruption to the free flow of goods, the ability to trade when ports, sea ports and air ports were just closed down. You had to rely primarily on what was available within your own borders. We have seen the impact on the war in Russia/Ukraine and to see the way which that has had an impact on the cost of goods and shipping services, the cost has increased dramatically. So, we want to take a look on the impact of Russia/Ukraine, the free flow of goods in the region and to devise strategies on how we can become more resilient when the next pandemic or the next shock comes that disrupts the trade. We need to be able to feed ourselves, provide good for services and be more resilient.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.
