Prime Minister of the Bahamas The Hon. Philip Edward Davis speaks onstage throughout International Citizen NOW 2024 at Spring Studios on Could 02, 2024 in New York Metropolis.
Picture by Noam Galai/Getty Photos
A Congressional group led by rating member Joaquin Castro had formally written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio {that a} high-level delegation attend this week’s three-day CARICOM leaders summit in Barbados from Wednesday to start reversing China’s rising dominant function within the area.
Chatting with reporters at residence on Monday, Bahamian Prime Minister Phillip Davis says the area has no intention of being caught in the midst of an ideological spat between the 2 and can stay as a non-aligned occasion right here.
“CARICOM isn’t going to become involved within the geopolitical points between superpowers. We have now all the time taken a place of being unaligned with respect to these issues, and I believe that ought to proceed,” he informed reporters.
The native media had been looking for an evidence from the federal government after a current letter from the Congressional representatives and after American Chargé d’Affairesd’Affaires Kimberley Furnish at Grand Bahama Enterprise Outlook in Freeport on Thursday.
She had argued that it was crucial that the Bahamas and different Caribbean nations “resist” China’s affect, arguing that China guarantees a lot however “delivers little.”
Replying to the diplomat, Minister of Overseas Affairs Fred Mitchell stated in a press release that the Bahamas has no plans to be concerned in any motion involving the 2 superpowers.
“We aren’t concerned, nor can we see ourselves as engaged in or a part of any ideological struggle or geopolitical brinkmanship. There isn’t a proof to assist the view that this nation is getting used as a platform by China to assault america. We might not be a celebration to any such effort,” he stated.
“To state the plain, we’re fifty miles off the coast of america with an import-based financial system, the place, for instance, 90 % of the meals we eat is sourced by america.
Virtually each Bahamian has a member of the family who’s American,” he stated, noting that “we have now important cultural and household ties with the individuals of america. Virtually each Bahamian has a member of the family who’s American. We have now diplomatic relations with China simply as america does. We don’t intrude in China’s inside affairs, and they don’t intrude with ours.”
The lawmakers reminded Rubio that the area is the US’s third border and would do properly to obtain the eye it deserves, given its shut proximity to commerce and safety issues.
