By Staff Writer
CASTRIES, St. Lucia, April 2026, CMC – St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre, Monday, urged his Caribbean Community (CARICOM) colleagues to use the telephone to speak to each other more often as he shied away from the ongoing controversy surrounding the reappointment of Dr. Carla Barnett as the Secretary General of the regional integration grouping.
Asked at the weekly Cabinet news conference if he had anything to say regarding the controversy that has been sparked by Trinidad and Tobago insisting that it was not invited to the retreat where the Barnett decision was taken in Nevis in February, Pierre said, “I would prefer to say just one thing.
“I said it in Barbados, and I’ll say it again. I really wish CARICOM prime ministers would speak more to each other. That’s what I want to see. A phone call, and that’s what I want to see. Because you know, I don’t want to get involved in that to create more drama.
“I really believe, and I say from the bottom of my heart, that CARICOM prime ministers should at least speak to each other. Pick up the phone and call each other,” Pierre said.
Over the last weekend, Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar dismissed a statement issued by the CARICOM chairman, Dr. Terrance Drew, in which he reiterated that Port of Spain was not “uninvited” to the retreat.
In dismissing the statement, Persad-Bissessar took to her Facebook page and called for the minutes of the retreat meeting where the appointment took place.
“Where are the minutes of the retreat meeting? Where’s GS Barnett’s performance appraisal? Where’s the documentation of the 2021 appointment process, which is claimed to be the same as the 2026 process? Where’s the other documentation requested in our letter of April 9th, 2026?” she said in her statement, adding, “Hopefully, the citizens of CARICOM will be provided with time-stamped copies of these documents”.
In a lengthy statement following the meeting of the regional leaders last Friday to discuss the issues in relation to the governance of CARICOM, Dr. Drew, who is also the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, also released 11 pages of the correspondence that had been sent to all members countries leading up to the February 24-27 summit that was held in Basseterre.
He said said that Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar had left the summit on “the evening of the first day of the first day of the Conference, before the Retreat on February 26” and that on February 25, at 10.33 pm “ Trinidad and Tobago’s Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister, Sean Sobers called the Secretary General on WhatsApp to inquire if he should attend the retreat in the absence of his Prime Minister.
He was advised that he could and that other leaders who have had to leave may be represented by their foreign ministers. Prime Minister Drew said Sobers “indicated that he had a problem with seasickness, so he may not be able to attend”.
Trinidad and Tobago had been calling for a meeting of CARICOM to deal with the re-appointment of Barnett, insisting that it was “deliberately uninvited” to the meeting where the agreement had been reached. But both Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar and Sobers did not attend last Friday’s special regional leaders meeting to discuss the matter.
Pierre, who takes over the chairman of CARICOM when the leaders meet here in July, said he recalled earlier in his political journey how the former prime ministers like Sir John Compton, Dominica’s Eugenia Charles, Barbados’ Tom Adams, and even Owen Arthur were in contact with each other.
“I remember Owen Arthur speaking to Kenny Anthony (former St. Lucia prime minister) very often, almost every other day. Owen used to be on the phone with Kenny Anthony. And I just wish that CARICOM prime ministers would just speak to each other.
“I’m going to become chairman of CARICOM in July. Now that may sound, you know, that may sound as a very simplistic thing, because people like to talk about big series and big doctrines and things.
“I’m a pretty simple person. I’m very simple, or very, very simple… All I wish is that by the end of my term, I could get CARICOM prime ministers to pick up the phone and call each other. That’s all. If that happens, you will see the change.
“Very simple. Very simple solution. Very simple solution. But I hope that we solve that problem, that issue. The issue has gone into the public domain now. As soon as it gets there, all politics is local. So the local politicians will get hold of it,” Pierre said, adding, “it’s unfortunate.
“Very unfortunate. Because there is room for CARICOM. CARICOM is not a political union. CARICOM does not have to have the same foreign policy. But there is room. But there are some things we have to agree on.
“And if in my term, I can just get this simple act of more direct communication between CARICOM prime ministers, regardless of the size of their countries, it would have pleased me.
“That’s what I ask for because CARICOM is doing good work. Very good work. We don’t seem to recognise it,” he said, noting that in trade, the Common External Tariff (CET) “is keeping a lot of CARICOM’s trade together.
Pierre said he genuinely believes that the ”very simple act of communication will solve a lot of problems. That’s my very, what some may call simplistic 9wish. Some even call it naive. But I maintain that CARICOM prime ministers should be speaking to each other more (often),” Pierre told reporters.
CMC/pr/ir/2026