DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley will lead a del­e­ga­tion to Ot­tawa, Cana­da, to at­tend the first-ever Cana­da-Cari­com Sum­mit lat­er this month.

Un­der the theme Strate­gic Part­ners for a Re­silient Fu­ture, the sum­mit will high­light Cana­da’s strong ties with the Caribbean, with the aim of strength­en­ing co­op­er­a­tion and chart­ing a bet­ter fu­ture.

For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne will not be part of the del­e­ga­tion to the sum­mit, which will run from Oc­to­ber 17-19, as he will be con­tribut­ing to the Bud­get de­bate in the Sen­ate dur­ing that pe­ri­od.

How­ev­er, Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that for­mer min­is­ter and high com­mis­sion­er to Cana­da, Den­nis Moses, will be part of the en­voy.

As part of the del­e­ga­tion’s agen­da, Dr Row­ley is ex­pect­ed to call on the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to pro­vide swift re­lief to Haiti amid the on­go­ing cri­sis there.

Haiti’s in­sta­bil­i­ty has on­ly wors­ened since the 2010 earth­quake that killed some 200,000 peo­ple and is com­pound­ed by the preva­lence of armed gangs that are rav­aging the na­tion.

Min­is­ter Browne told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that a multi­na­tion­al re­sponse to the Haiti cri­sis is ex­pect­ed to be one of the key ar­eas of fo­cus in Cana­da. He re­mind­ed that Row­ley, and him­self, have been di­rect­ly en­gaged in re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al dis­cus­sions, as well as ad­vo­ca­cy on the mat­ter.

He al­so not­ed that the Prime Min­is­ter, along­side oth­er Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment, have re­peat­ed­ly called for glob­al pow­ers to as­sist in Haiti.

Browne said these ef­forts have borne fruit, with the Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil re­cent­ly adopt­ing a res­o­lu­tion to au­tho­rise the cre­ation of a Multi­na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Sup­port (MSS) mis­sion in Haiti. The MSS will be led by Kenya, which has pledged 1,000 of­fi­cers, al­though it is un­clear how many boots will be de­ployed in to­tal. The unit, how­ev­er, may take months to es­tab­lish.