Congresswoman Yvette Clarke "Honored" to Have Been Part of Bipartisan Congressional Delegation to Barbados
NEW YORK, New York – Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman, Yvette D. Clarke, says she was “honored” to have joined a bipartisan United States Congressional delegation to Barbados last weekend for talks with Caribbean leaders.
Yvette D. Clarke“As a daughter to Jamaican immigrants and representative of a large Caribbean-American population within my district, I am committed to fostering and enhancing the vital economic partnership between the United States and the Caribbean,” Clarke told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
During their visit, Clarke, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York, said the delegation met with government officials and regional representatives “to discuss ways to advance our respective security, economic and climate goals.
“I was immensely grateful for the opportunity to commemorate the 58th anniversary of Barbados’ independence, and to celebrate the 100th birthday of my predecessor and proud Barbadian-American, the Hon. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm,” said Clarke, a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, as well as the Committee on Homeland Security in the US House of Representatives.
Chisholm, the daughter of Barbadian and Guyanese immigrants, was the first Black woman to seek the nomination of a major party for president of the United States.
“In order to achieve equitable economic growth and development across the region, we must build upon the work of the Biden-Harris Administration and continue to implement policy that strengthens our relationships with America’s allies in the Caribbean,” Clarke said.
Besides Clarke, members of the delegation included Democratic leader in the US Congress, Hakeem Jeffries, Stacey E. Plaskett of the US Virgin Islands, Maxine Waters, Gregory W. Meeks and Steven Horsford, the Trinidadian-American chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and member of the Committee on Ways and Means.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley, who attended the talks in Bridgetown, said the meeting focused on several issues including security, economic and climate goals for the US and CARICOM.
The Bridgetown Initiative is a call for urgent and decisive action to reform the international financial architecture (IFA) that was designed at a time when most of the current member states were not independent and when climate risks or social inequalities, including gender equality, were not considered pre-eminent development challenges.
The small island developing states (SIDS), including those in the Caribbean have become increasingly at odds with the reality and needs of the world today, making the IFA entirely unfit for purpose in a world characterized by unrelenting climate change, increasing systemic risks, extreme inequality, highly integrated financial markets vulnerable to cross-border contagion, and dramatic demographics, technological, economic, and geopolitical changes.
