Prime Minister Gaston Browne was in fine form when he staunchly defended the Cuban Medical Brigade initiative through which medical personnel from the Spanish speaking Caribbean country are employed within Antigua and Barbuda’s healthcare services.
PM Browne sought to put to rest the notion that Antigua and Barbuda or any of the other OECS country or the Bahamas was engaged in human trafficking. He made the point during a meeting on Tuesday between the leaders of five OECS states and the Bahamas with the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in Washington.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States, Sir Ron Sanders, who accompanied PM Browne to the talks, noted that the prime minister was forceful in defending the Cuban medical assistance programme.
“He made the point that we are not involved in trafficking. We pay the Cuban doctors and nurses well, we treat them well, we place no restrictions on them, they are not trafficked as far as we are concern, and the relationship that we have in paying the Cuban government is no different from what we would have done had we entered into an arrangement for medical services from Ghana or the Philippines who also export medical services. There is nothing sinister in it,” he observed.
According to Sir Ronald, PM Browne was both ‘surgical’ and ‘precise’ in his presentation at the meeting with Secretary Rubio. “Prime Minister Browne was extremely good; he was surgical and precise in putting forward the concerns of Antigua and Barbuda and the ways in which he sees the relationship between the United States and the countries of the Caribbean, including Antigua and Barbuda. What he said was this; there is no question of the strength of the relationship between Antigua and Barbuda and the United States and there is no question about the deep regard that we have for that relationship. He pointed out that we probably have a bigger diaspora of Antiguans and Barbudans living in the United States that we have living in Antigua and Barbuda. That was one of the points that he underscored,” Sir Ronald reported.
The US Secretary of State also raised the issue of the flow of guns that enters the region from the United States and the impact these weapons are having on crime and safety in the region.
“Secretary Rubio said he realizes that a lot of the guns that are entering the Caribbean and are being used by criminals and gangs, come from the United States and the State Department and the US government will make every effort to bring this to an end,” he revealed.
The matter of the CBI programmes operated by five OECS countries also came up for discussion. No details were immediately available.
On the issue of trade, PM Browne reportedly made a call for more dialogue between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies.
