Out­go­ing Chair­man of the 15-mem­ber Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com) and St Kitts and Nevis Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ter­rance Drew has urged re­gion­al lead­ers to make every ef­fort to at­tend meet­ings where ma­jor de­ci­sions are tak­en, amid the on­go­ing con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing the reap­point­ment of Cari­com Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Dr Car­la Bar­nett.

Speak­ing at the open­ing of the 51st Reg­u­lar Meet­ing of the Con­fer­ence of Heads of Gov­ern­ment in Saint Lu­cia yes­ter­day, Drew stressed the im­por­tance of lead­ers be­ing present when crit­i­cal is­sues are dis­cussed.

“When­ev­er this Com­mu­ni­ty faces mat­ters of great sig­nif­i­cance, let us en­sure that every Head of Gov­ern­ment makes every ef­fort to be present,” he said.

Drew has been at the cen­tre of the dis­pute over the process that re­sult­ed in the an­nounce­ment of Be­lizean Dr Car­la Bar­nett’s reap­point­ment to a sec­ond five-year term, be­gin­ning in Au­gust. The de­ci­sion has been strong­ly re­ject­ed by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gov­ern­ment.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has ar­gued that the reap­point­ment process lacked trans­paren­cy and has said her Gov­ern­ment will not recog­nise Bar­nett as Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al af­ter Ju­ly 31.

Ad­dress­ing the wider is­sue of re­gion­al gov­er­nance, Drew said dis­agree­ments should be re­solved through di­rect di­a­logue rather than pub­lic ex­changes.

“Is­sues should be re­solved in-house, away from the cam­eras and pre­pared state­ments, al­low­ing col­leagues to speak can­did­ly,” he said.

“Trust is strength­ened, mis­un­der­stand­ings are re­solved, con­sen­sus is built.

“No news­pa­per head­line has solved a dis­agree­ment among Caribbean lead­ers. No pub­lic com­men­tary has ever re­placed hon­est di­a­logue. But re­spect­ful con­ver­sa­tion among col­leagues com­mit­ted to a com­mon pur­pose has re­peat­ed­ly strength­ened this Com­mu­ni­ty.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar left the Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment meet­ing in St Kitts and Nevis in Feb­ru­ary be­fore Bar­nett’s reap­point­ment was con­sid­ered. She has said she del­e­gat­ed For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers to at­tend the rel­e­vant ses­sion, but it lat­er emerged that he did not trav­el to Nevis be­cause of con­cerns about trav­el­ling by fer­ry.

Yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar ar­rived at the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny in Saint Lu­cia short­ly af­ter Bar­nett had de­liv­ered her ad­dress.

In con­clud­ing his re­marks, Drew praised the Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al for her lead­er­ship dur­ing his tenure as Cari­com chair­man.

“Madam Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al, thank you for your pro­fes­sion­al­ism, your in­tegri­ty and your stead­fast com­mit­ment to this Com­mu­ni­ty through­out my tenure,” he said.

“When­ev­er I called, you an­swered. When­ev­er sup­port was re­quired, you and your team re­spond­ed with dili­gence, com­pe­tence and ex­cel­lence.

“You have served with dis­tinc­tion. You have un­der­stood the im­por­tance of pre­serv­ing the im­par­tial­i­ty of the Sec­re­tari­at while faith­ful­ly im­ple­ment­ing the de­ci­sions of Heads of Gov­ern­ment. That bal­ance has strength­ened this Com­mu­ni­ty.”

Drew al­so high­light­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go’s suc­cess­ful elec­tion to a non-per­ma­nent seat on the Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, de­scrib­ing it as an achieve­ment made pos­si­ble through re­gion­al uni­ty.

“Al­though Trinidad and To­ba­go was the can­di­date, it en­tered that elec­tion car­ry­ing the unit­ed and pub­lic sup­port of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty,” he said.

“That sup­port demon­strat­ed that when Cari­com stands be­hind one of its own, our col­lec­tive voice com­mands re­spect on the world stage. One could imag­ine that Trinidad and To­ba­go, a very small coun­try when one con­sid­ers the world, go­ing up against oth­er coun­tries for a seat on the Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil by it­self.”