Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St Vincent, met with His Excellency, Mr. Charles Michel, President of the European Council, earlier today (July 17).
Hon. Keisal Peters, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and Camillo Gonsalves, Minister of Finance, also attended the bilateral meeting, which took place ahead of the start of the 2023 EU-CELAC Summit.
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves provided some observations after leaving the gathering to attend another meeting. He stated:
“We held a meeting about the summit. There are one or two problematic paragraphs in the declaration that we need to resolve so that Keisal, Camillo, and Dougie can stay behind with Elsworth John, the chair of the declaration’s drafting committee, to see how we can resolve some language in the declaration to get the approval of all sixty (60) member states.”
“As you might expect, there are some complex questions at stake,” he continued, “but I am hopeful that we will get there.”
“We have agreed on most things; there are a few things that are outstanding,” the prime minister said. “We had a wide-ranging discussion with Charles Michel on the broad contours of the relationship between Europe (European Union) and the Latin American and Caribbean countries – CELAC.”
The President Pro Tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States – CELAC – is St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
