The re­cent Cari­com-Sau­di Ara­bia Sum­mit has pro­duced a 15-point de­c­la­ra­tion to un­der­take “con­sul­ta­tions and ex­plore co­op­er­a­tion” on ar­eas from en­er­gy and tourism to food se­cu­ri­ty—and that Cari­com will sup­port Sau­di Ara­bia’s bid to host the World Ex­po 2030 and en­dorse Sau­di Ara­bia’s can­di­da­cy to host the 2034 Fi­fa World Cup.

This was con­firmed in a joint state­ment by Cari­com yes­ter­day. Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and oth­er Cari­com lead­ers at­tend­ed the sum­mit on Thurs­day. Lead­ers de­cid­ed to hold the sec­ond such sum­mit in 2026.

Bi­lat­er­al talks be­tween T&T and Sau­di Ara­bia were due to con­tin­ue yes­ter­day.

Lead­ers were in­vit­ed to the sum­mit by King Salman bin Ab­du­laz­iz Al Saud, King of the King­dom of Sau­di Ara­bia. The sum­mit was co-chaired by Prince Mo­hammed bin Salman bin Ab­du­laz­iz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Min­is­ter of the King­dom of Sau­di Ara­bia, and Cari­com chair­man Roo­sevelt Sker­rit.

The state­ment said lead­ers ex­changed views on is­sues of com­mon in­ter­est and dis­cussed ways to fur­ther ex­pand and ad­vance their part­ner­ship “to take ad­van­tage of the growth op­por­tu­ni­ties that can be utilised through co­op­er­a­tion” be­tween both re­gions, based on shared vi­sion and the val­ues em­bod­ied in the Unit­ed Na­tions Char­ter.

Among the 15 points, the state­ment added that lead­ers de­clared to join ef­forts to pro­mote peace, se­cu­ri­ty, sta­bil­i­ty and pros­per­i­ty, through mu­tu­al re­spect and co­op­er­a­tion be­tween coun­tries and re­gions, to achieve sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment and progress and main­tain the rules-based in­ter­na­tion­al or­der based on ad­her­ence to in­ter­na­tion­al law and the UN Char­ter.

Lead­ers de­clared to “un­der­take con­sul­ta­tions and ex­plore co­op­er­a­tion” on spe­cif­ic ar­eas of com­mon in­ter­est be­tween both sides, name­ly ed­u­ca­tion schol­ar­ships), health, mar­itime co­op­er­a­tion, con­nec­tiv­i­ty, lo­gis­tics, food se­cu­ri­ty, en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty, tourism, eco­nom­ic and oth­er pos­si­ble ar­eas of co­op­er­a­tion, where ap­pro­pri­ate, in­clud­ing the Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals (SDGs).

Lead­ers al­so de­clared to sup­port Sau­di Ara­bia’s bid to host Ex­po 2030 in Riyadh.

They stressed the im­por­tant role that Cari­com and the Sau­di Ara­bia can play in host­ing ma­jor sport­ing events. The Sum­mit en­dorsed the can­di­da­cy of Sau­di Ara­bia to host the 2034 FI­FA World Cup and wel­comed that the Caribbean will host the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup.

They al­so agreed to co­op­er­ate in de­vel­op­ment of sus­tain­able and cir­cu­lar agri­cul­ture and pro­mo­tion of sus­tain­able food pro­duc­tion, sus­tain­able use and man­age­ment of wa­ter re­sources and pro­mote trade and in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties in food and agri-based in­dus­tries.

They de­clared to pro­mote co­op­er­a­tion in tourism, in­clud­ing her­itage, cruise, sus­tain­able and eco­tourism, med­ical and well­ness tourism, by un­der­tak­ing bench­mark­ing ac­tiv­i­ties, joint in­vest­ments and strength­en­ing ca­pac­i­ty-build­ing.

Cari­com lead­ers ex­pressed their ap­pre­ci­a­tion to King Salman bin Ab­du­laz­iz Al Saud and Prince Mo­hammed bin Salman bin Ab­du­laz­iz Al Saud, and to the gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Sau­di Ara­bia for their hos­pi­tal­i­ty, ac­cord­ing to the state­ment.

Pic­tures on the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter’s web­site yes­ter­day showed Row­ley pre­sent­ing a col­lec­tion of se­lect­ed books on T&T to Sau­di Ara­bia’s Min­is­ter of Tourism Ahmed Al Kha­teeb and Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein, Row­ley and the Cari­com team vis­it­ing the King Ab­dul­lah Fi­nan­cial Dis­trict in Riyadh.