Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley

Barbados will not be at the table when Caribbean leaders meet with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Jamaica, tomorrow.

This decision has been taken by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley who announced on Saturday night she would not be sending Foreign Minister Senator Jerome Walcott to the meeting.

Pompeo is scheduled to be in Jamaica for the two-day meeting with Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness and other Caribbean leaders and according to a release from the US State Department, he will “conduct a multi-lateral round table discussion” with the Caribbean leaders and also “deliver remarks on US-Caribbean relations.”

Prime Minister Mottley said at a gala to celebrate the centenary of the birth of The Right Excellent Errol W. Barrow on Saturday night: “As chairman of CARICOM, it is impossible for me to agree that my Foreign Minister should attend a meeting to which members of CARICOM are not invited” and suggested it was an attempt at divide and rule among CARICOM countries “if some are invited and not all”.

The Prime Minister reminded the audience of over 400 attending a fund-raising dinner hosted by the Errol and Nita Barrow Foundation at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, of the late National Hero’s famous statement “We will be friends of all and satellites of none”. (GC)