CARICOM ON CITIA STATEMENT AND CONFERENCE ON THE

C O N F I D E N T I A L GEORGETOWN 000406 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/25/2017 TAGS: PREL ETTC PARM MASS KSUM CARICOM GY SUBJECT: CARICOM ON CITIA STATEMENT AND CONFERENCE ON THE CARIBBEAN REF: STATE 49116 Classified By: DCM Michael D. Thomas. Reason: 1.4(d) -------------- CITIA -------------- ¶1. (SBU) DCM delivered the CITIA demarche to CARICOM A/SG Granderson April 24. In his introductory chatter Granderson noted the difficulty the CARICOM Secretariat has in preparing for the multitude of high-level CARICOM meetings and in following up on action items afterwards. In response to CITIA points, Granderson said that CARICOM had recently started hearing back from member states on the statement (note: we have heard that before) and he thinks the U.S. demarche may have helped. Granderson says the CARICOM Secretariat recognizes the need to get the statement out and SIPDIS has considered imposing a deadline on member states (note: we have heard that before too). Granderson did not react to the proposal to release the statement bilaterally if CARICOM remains unable to agree to the joint statement. -------------- Conference on the Caribbean -------------- ¶2. (C) Granderson asked what post is hearing from Washington about the Conference on the Caribbean. DCM relayed the frustration sensed from Washington at the lack of a response to the USG agenda suggestions for the government to government meetings and concern from both Washington and MFA Guyana at the lack of a decision on a hotel. Granderson agreed and said he is sending "increasingly harsh messages" to Caribbean Ambassadors in DC that they must "stop horsing around on logistics and focus on the agenda NOW." ¶3. (C) Ambassador Robinson and SG Carrington had a tentative appointment this week to discuss the government-to-government agenda, but Granderson said it would have to be delayed as Carrington has been detained abroad for at least a week for other meetings. (Note: this meeting was set at an April 4, during which Carrington declined to discuss the agenda citing the difficulty CARICOM is having getting &democratic consensus8 on the it because there are four separate groups involved: ambassadors in Washington, heads of government, the council of foreign ministers, and the CARICOM Secretariat, each of which needs to come to its own internal consensus before the four groups meld their ideas. It took two weeks to get the April 4 meeting. CARICOM staff explained the repeated postponements of that meeting as due to the need to get internal consensus on the agenda.) Granderson noted that COFCOR is meeting in Belize next week (sic, the meeting calendar on CARICOM's website lists the COFCOR meetings for May 7-11) and predicted/hoped that the COFCOR agenda will force decisions. ¶4. (C) Comment: Granderson is an open and frank interlocutor. He did not attempt to hide his frustration at CARICOM's inability to produce as simple an output to the Rice-CARICOM Ministerial as the CITIA statement or a simple response to the proposed agenda, nor the ill portent these examples bode for the Conference on the Caribbean. Bilaterally, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Roger Luncheon expressed a similar view to Ambassador and DCM today. In Luncheon's view, CARICOM is trying so hard to come to concensus on common positions that they risk coming to the Conference on the Caribbean with no positions at all. Robinson