Manning's political union gets more members

Prime Minister Patrick Manning's meeting with OECS nations this week appears to have expanded his alliance with other Eastern Caribbean states. Manning says more members of have agreed to be part of the initiative for economic and political alliance with Trinidad and Tobago.

The meeting on Thursday in St Kitts was called to discuss the August 14 memorandum of agreement for political and economic union between Trinidad and Tobago and three OECS states: Grenada, St Vincent and St Lucia.

The economic union will take place by 2011 with the political alliance two years later. The OECS has unanimously endorsed the plan but Manning has had a cold shoulder on the proposal from both Jamaica and Belize.

The St Kitts meeting, which was chaired by St Kitts Prime Minister Denzil Douglas, was very successful Manning said at a post-budget meeting in Fyzabad. OECS chairman, Grenadian Prime Minister Tillman Thomas did not attend due to illness.

"Indeed, the OECS countries present, that were not here on August 14, that is Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts and Nevis, agreed to sign on to the arrangement and Dominica has previously agreed to do so,” he said.

Manning declared, "OECS leader have seen the way forward."

He said Monsterrat, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands have also expressed interest in the union. But they are wards of the United Kingdom and cannot make unilateral decisions to join without consultations with London.

Speaking after the the talks, Host PM Denzil Douglas said, “We have agreed to pursue discussions and consultations aggressively with our various publics in the Eastern Caribbean and in Trinidad and Tobago...so that an appropriate road map can be worked out for us to achieve our end.”