GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Edwin Carrington says regional countries are seeking to establish a joint mission in Eastern European.

?We have been asked by the foreign ministers at their meeting in Jamaica at the beginning of May to do the finalised costing and we expect that to be done soon and there might well be a first for CARICOM joint representation,? he said.

Carrington, speaking ahead of the July 2-4 meeting of regional leaders in Guyana, said that CARICOM has been unsuccessful in the past of establishing joint missions in Geneva, Switzerland and South Africa.

But he said that the idea of having joint missions has not been abandoned, pointing to the success the sub-regional Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) has had in establishing joint missions Canada and Belgium.

Carrington said that Eastern Europe provides a good opportunity for the 15-member CARICOM grouping to establish a presence since no individual Caribbean country has a diplomatic office in that region.

In-coming CARICOM Chairman and President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, told reporters last week that climate change, tourism, agriculture and the global financial crisis were some of the items on the agenda for the CARICOM summit.