‘CARICOM is being tested’: St. Vincent PM pushes for deeper regional integration

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Godwin Friday has urged Caribbean leaders to accelerate regional integration, warning that small states face mounting global uncertainty and cannot afford complacency.

Addressing the 50th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM, Friday — who also chairs the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) — acknowledged persistent criticism about the slow pace of regional progress. But he argued that the very existence of CARICOM and the OECS underscores their necessity.

“Today, we would feel their absence and set about working to create them. Thankfully, CARICOM remains,” he said. “But now, more than ever, we are being tested. We are challenged from inside and out.”

Friday painted a sobering picture of the global landscape, saying the world “grows more perilous daily” and that long-standing international rules and practices are shifting “in troubling ways.”

Those changes, he said, “call upon us to look to one another for support.”

“Where we thought we could safely rely on familiar roads of the road, we must now tread cautiously and maneuver as best we can to advance our individual and collective interests,” he told fellow heads of government.

Despite the challenges, Friday maintained that regionalism remains the strongest safeguard for Caribbean states.

“Our persistence on the path of regionalism, no matter the challenges, is the best way forward. Let us strengthen resolve about that,” he said.

He committed to working closely with his regional counterparts, stressing that his position is grounded in pragmatism rather than sentiment.

“I am committed to working alongside all of my colleagues, not merely out of sentimentalism, but also because there is no better alternative that I can think of for my country, St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Friday said.

Beyond defending integration, he called for it to move faster and become more tangible to citizens. He urged leaders to address persistent barriers to trade and commerce, close skills gaps, confront climate change with adequate resilience financing, and take collective positions on pressing regional crises, including Haiti and Cuba.

He also emphasized the need to make CARICOM more visible and relevant to ordinary people, arguing that its achievements — however incremental — should be more actively promoted.

In closing, Friday challenged regional leaders to “quicken the pace” of their work, suggesting that while the road ahead may be uncertain, it is safer and more certain when traveled together.