Stephenson King

CASTRIES, St. Lucia CMC

– Prime Minister Stephenson King says his administration has no plans for the moment to be part of a political union being promoted by Trinidad and Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

"I am saying that our current interest is centred on the further strengthening and broadening of what already exist as the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States). We are not particularly interested at this time on another arrangement or regional organisation," King said.

Last month Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his St. Vincent and the Grenadines counterpart, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said they were exploring the possibility of a closer political union that would also include Grenada and possibly St. Lucia.

Dr. Gonsalves said that former St. Lucia prime minister and university lecturer Dr. Vaughan Lewis and Trinidadian diplomat Dr. Cuthbert Joseph would be asked to undertake a study on the initiative.

But King told reporters that his government needs to focus on fortifying the integration structure of the nine-member OECS grouping.

"Our interests is in utilising what is already there to further strengthen the purpose of our regional integration," he said adding that while there is a need for political union within this region, it must be in consideration with the activities taking place at the OECS level.

"We cannot enter into another arrangement at the expense of what is already in train, for example we are progressing with the CMSE and the whole question of an economic union within the OECS.

"I genuinely believe that the OECS has achieved a lot and although the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago extended an invitation to St. Lucia our interest in it is to see how any new initiative can compliment what we already have rather than create yet another layer or area of commitment for our part."

King said that the proposed political union had to be pursued here then his administration would give serious consideration to utilising the experience and successes of the OECS.

"I can see the need to bring in the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and possibly Barbados and have what I would call a South-Eastern Organisation of Caribbean States, which would mean a further blossoming of what is now the OECS," he said.

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