The Segment of Senior Officials of the XXII Ordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Association of Caribbean States (AEC), which met today at the Tryp Habana Libre Hotel, was an auspicious space to support the process of strengthening the Association and the Commitments and agreements endorsed in the Declaration and Plan of Action of Havana, adopted at the VII Summit of the Association, held in June 2016, in the Cuban capital. The participating delegations recognized the work of the General Secretariat of the ACS and of Cuba, as pro - tempore president of the Council of Ministers of the Association, during the period 2016-2017.
The initiatives related to the convening of the First Cooperation Conference, the realization of training programs related to the integral management of disaster risk in the Caribbean and to the confrontation with Climate Change, and the activity of the Working Group Technical as a mechanism for the consolidation and revitalization of the operation of the Association.
During the meeting, nominations were prepared for the next Board of Directors of the Council of Ministers and of the Special Committees, the Council of National Representatives of the Special Fund and the Caribbean Sea Commission for the period 2017-2018, which must be approved At the XXII Ordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers, on 10 March.
The appointment of Senior Officials paid tribute to the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, whose legacy in defense of the cooperation and integration of the Caribbean peoples was present throughout the event.
The XXII Preparatory Meeting of Senior Officials joined the Haitian people and Government in their grief over the death of former Haitian President René García Préval, one of the most prominent political leaders of the recent history of the Republic of Haiti.