Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, Minister of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade, leaves the island tomorrow, (Friday, May 27) to attend the 8th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
The two-day Summit, under the theme: Repositioning the ACP Group to Respond to the Challenges of Sustainable Development is scheduled for May 31-June 1 and will be preceded by an Extraordinary Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the ACP Group on Monday, May 30.
The Summit is important to Jamaica because our relationship with the EU, which embraces development cooperation, economic and trade cooperation, and the political dimension, derives from membership of the ACP.
Furthermore, with Jamaica assuming Chairmanship of the Caribbean Forum of ACP States (CARIFORUM) on July 1, the country’s participation in the Summit – the highest decision-making body of the ACP – takes on added significance.
“The Summit is an important space in which the Group will seek to further strengthen and reposition itself as a more effective international force on the global scene – especially in the context of the imminent expiry of the ACP-EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA) in 2020,” says Minister Johnson Smith.
The focus of the Summit will include:
• the implementation pace of the ACP-EU Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), bearing in mind, inter alia, the technical and financial resources needed by the ACP Group to assist in the implementation process; and
• the adoption of the Port Moresby Declaration, which will address equitable and sustainable development for ACP peoples, the enhancement of the ACP’s role in global governance for development, peace, security and political stability.
The Minister will also use the opportunity to have bilateral encounters with other Heads of Delegation, as well as with Mr. Neven Mimica, the EU Commissioner for Development, in the margins of the Meeting.
