The UK Caribbean Forum is a biennial meeting between UK and CARICOM Foreign Ministers at which issues of mutual interest are discussed.

UK & Caribbean Forum

UK/Caribbean Parliamentary Forum: Measures to Improve the UK/Caribbean Relationship

The second UK/Caribbean Parliamentary Forum was held in the Moses Room in the House of Lords in London on Tuesday 15 July 2008.

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock, President of the Caribbean-Britain Business Council (CBBC), hosted the event. The Hon Baldwin Spencer MP, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Antigua and Barbuda jointly chaired the event with Lord Foulkes.

British Members of Parliament and Caribbean Foreign Ministers, in an hour long debate, exchanged views at a parliamentary level on the forum's theme: Measures to improve the UK/Caribbean relationship. The event coincided with the sixth UK/Caribbean Ministerial Forum hosted by the British government.

During the forum, the parliamentarians considered: the relationship between the UK and Caribbean parliaments; the present state of party to party relationships; how the political role of the Diaspora in the UK might be enhanced; and how best to encourage greater Parliamentary interest in the UK-Caribbean relationship.

During his opening remarks, the Prime Minister of Antigua thanked the CBBC for organizing the event and for recognizing the importance of the parliamentary relationship to UK and Caribbean business.

The co-chairmen invited Delroy Chuck MP, Speaker of the House of Representatives in Jamaica, Diane Abbott MP, Chairman of the British All Party Parliamentary Group on the Caribbean, and Hugh Bayley, Chairman of the UK Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, to make comments on the forum theme before the debate was opened up to the MP's present.

During the forum, Members of Parliament discussed the changes that have occurred in the UK Caribbean relationship over the past twenty years and the opportunities that exist for future co-operation. It was widely agreed that the voice of the Caribbean Diaspora in the UK is an underused resource for tackling issues both in the UK and the Caribbean and that more should be done to engage the Diaspora.

The work that the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association branches do to encourage inter-parliamentary relationships was commended, and there was a general consensus that wherever possible governments of the Caribbean and the British government should seek to further develop meaningful links.

Commenting on the event, Lord Foulkes said "Following the success of the first forum in 2004, I was delighted to be able to host this second forum as part of the Ministerial Forum programme. The forum provides an unique opportunity for British parliamentarians to get together with those Caribbean parliamentarians attending the UK Caribbean Ministerial Forum to engage in an open and frank debate about the relationship between the UK and CARICOM. I very much hope the CBBC will have the opportunity to hold the third forum in 2012."