BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - PRIME MINISTER Dr. the Hon. Denzil Douglas firmly stated that St. Kitts-Nevis is not taking positions between the United States and Venezuela, but rather exerting its own right to sovereignty.
Douglas made the pronouncement following the Sixth PetroCaribe Summit of Heads of State and Government held on Friday, June 12.
The PetroCaribe is an oil and trade agreement between Venezuela and 14 other countries throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, and some critics view it as a way for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to gain support in his ideological battle with the United States.
Douglas said that he does not view the agreement this way, and does not believe that the United States does either.
“I think to a large extent the United States understands international relations among nations. They understand that this is part of our sovereignty.”
The reason for exerting the nation’s right to dominion in the case of PetroCaribe, Douglas said, resides in the many benefits that it could bring to the development of St. Kitts-Nevis.
“We have to ensure that we cannot only reassert our sovereignty from time to time, but that we should always seek to obtain economic independence, which is what I really think the ALBA and PetroCaribe are really about,” he stated.
“It is not just about petroleum products. It is about several other benefits to the people of the Caribbean who are members, including the rebuilding of our basic [electricity] infrastructure. In the case of St. Kitts-Nevis, [PetroCaribe] also helps to better shelter our human beings.”
With initiatives regarding food security, alternative energies and increased trade between member countries, all being discussed at the PetroCaribe Summit, Douglas said that it is clearly an agreement aimed toward unifying the people of the Americas, not dividing them.
“We have been brought closer together as a family [by the Summit]. We should be able to live as one in the Americas. Even though we may have come from different parts of the hemisphere, and our colonial masters would have been speaking different languages, we have to focus on the common heritage.
“Our destiny is really closer integration with each other,” the Prime Minister said.
