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Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Britain and the Commonwealth Caribbean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Paul Sutton
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Extract

There are two views of British policy toward the Commonwealth Caribbean. One, held most firmly by those with responsibility for British policy, is that Britain is fully engaged with the region and that it remains committed to its welfare. It is exemplified by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's website which contains a section entitled ‘Britain's Special Relationship with the Caribbean’. The other, encountered in the Caribbean and by its diplomatic representatives in Britain, as well as by some of those in Britain who have close contact with the region, is that Britain has diluted its commitments and is in a long process of withdrawal from the region. It is exemplified in observations made from time to time by Caribbean High Commissioners in the UK, and none more so than Sir Ron Sanders, the former and current High Commissioner for Antigua and Barbuda who has written on Britain's lack of commitment to the Caribbean.

Type
Conference: ‘Costs and Benefits of Independence in the Caribbean’
Information
Itinerario , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , July 2001 , pp. 42 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 2001

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References

Notes

1 ‘Britain's Special relationship with the Caribbean’ (www.fco.gov.uk).

2 Sanders, Ron, ‘Britain and the Caribbean: A Caribbean Perspective’ in: Sutton, Paul ed., Europe and the Caribbean (Basingstoke 1991).Google Scholar

3 Those not members were the Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guyana, Turks and Caicos Islands and Bermuda.

4 Thorndike, Tony, ‘The Political Economy of Independence of the Former Associated States of the Commonwealth Caribbean’ in: Sutton, Paul ed., Dual Legacies in the Contemporary Caribbean: Continuing Aspects of British and French Dominion (London 1986).Google Scholar

5 Payne, Anthony, The International Crisis in the Caribbean (London 1984) 90.Google Scholar

6 House of Commons, Fifth Report from the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, Session 1981–1982: Caribbean and Central America (London 1982) paragraphs 78–188 and paragraph 262.

7 Observations by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth the Affairs on the Fifth Report from the Foreign Affairs Committee, Cmnd. 8819 (London 1983) paragraph 18 and ff.

8 Sutton, Paul, ‘Britain and the EEC in the Commonwealth Caribbean’ in: Payne, Anthony and Sutton, Paul eds, Dependency Under Challenge: The Political Economy of the Commonwealth Caribbean (Manchester 1984).Google Scholar

9 See, in particular Paul Sutton, ‘The European Community and the Caribbean: Main Dimensions and Key Issues’ in Sutton: Europe and the Caribbean.

10 Sutton, Paul, ‘The Banana Regime of the European Union, the Caribbean and Latin America’, Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 36/2 (1997).Google Scholar

11 Sutton, Paul, ‘The “New Europe” and the Caribbean’, European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 59 (1995).Google Scholar

12 Foreign and Commonwealth Office, ‘Drugs in the Caribbean: British, EU and Caribbean Responses’, Background Brief, London, September 1998.

13 Observations by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on the Second Report: Grenada (1984) cited in Anthony Payne, ‘Britain and the Caribbean’ in: Sutton, Europe and the Caribbean, 23.

14 Sutton, Paul, ‘Britain and the Commonwealth Caribbean’ in: Beruff, Jorge Rodriguez and Muniz, Humberto Garcia eds, Security Problems and Policies in the Post-Cold War Caribbean (Basingstoke 1996).Google Scholar

15 These were headings of notes taken by me at a seminar at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in November 1986 which examined the future of the dependent territories.

16 Statement by Tim Eggar in the House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) 124/16, 16 December 1987, Col. 574.

17 Address by the Rt Hon the Baroness Young, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, to the West India Committee Luncheon, 31 October 1984. Mimeo.

18 Foreign and Commonwealth Office, ‘Mr Eggar's Speech to the Miami Conference on the Caribbean, 22 November 1985’. Mimeo.

19 Sutton, Paul and Payne, Anthony, ‘The Off-Limits Caribbean: The United States and the European Dependent Territories’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 533, May 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 Sutton, ‘Britain and the Commonwealth Caribbean’.

21 Ibid.

22 Payne and Sutton, ‘The Off-Limits Caribbean’.

23 Figures given by the West India Committee, 1992.

24 Hennessy, Alistair and Lambie, George eds, The Fractured Blockade: West European-Cuban Relations During the Revolution (Basingstoke 1993) chapters 9–10.Google Scholar

25 The West India Committee, ‘New Directions for British Policy in the Caribbean’, 5 March 1992. Mimeo.

26 House of Lords, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) 540/63, 23 November 1992, Col. 871.

27 Ibid., Col. 904.

28 Joint Communiqué, UK/Caribbean Forum 2000, London, 11–12 May 2000. Mimeo. Also obtainable on the FCO website.

29 I have been a member since its inception. In time honoured fashion I want to emphasise the fact that the views I am expressing in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of other members or the group as a whole.

30 The government departments most involved are the FCO, DFID, the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and the Treasury.

31 Statement by the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, House of Commons, 16 March 1999 (www.fco.gov.uk).

32 White Paper, Partnership for Progress (www.fco.gov.uk).

33 Department for International Development, ‘Overview of UK Development Partnership with the Caribbean’ (DFID Caribbean, July 1998). Mimeo.

34 John Dew, Head of the Latin American and Caribbean Department, FCO, ‘British Policy and the Caribbean’ (Paper given to the Conference on Caribbean Survival and the Global Challenge in the 21st Century, Institute of International Relations, Trinidad, March 2000). Mimeo.

35 The British Council promotes British culture abroad under the general direction of the FCO. Its offices in the Commonwealth Caribbean were closed in 1974 but re-opened again in 1989. Of note is that a new office has recently opened in Cuba.

36 CARITAG is the regional arm of the government agency British Trade International and promotes British trade and investment in the Caribbean.

37 ‘The Caribbean: What Does the Future Hold?’ (Short Report on Wilton Park Conference 614, October 2000).

38 Speech by Baroness Hooper introducing the debate on Latin America and the Caribbean, House of Lord (Hansard), 28 February 2001, Col. 1187. Alternatively, it could be seen as a move to ensure that the Caribbean was not overlooked. Baroness Scotland energetically promoted the Caribbean during her period as a Minister in the FCO.