Prime Minister Tillman Thomas believes that there is a political will within the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to forge ahead with a political and economic union with Trinidad and Tobago.
Prime Minister Thomas along with his counterparts from St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Stephenson King and Ralph Gonsalves recently singed a Memorandum of Understanding with Prime Minister, Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago to establish a framework for closer cooperation towards the achievement of the single economy by 2011 and an appropriate political integration by 2013.
As OECS Chairman, PM Thomas, together with Manning, journeyed to three other OECS countries, Dominica, Antigua, and St. Kitts and Nevis to sell the idea of the political union with Port-of-Spain.
Speaking in St. George's, the new Grenadian leader sought to explain the rationale behind the latest move towards political union among some of the small states.
"Essentially what this initiative is saying... it is time for us to move ahead with the integration movement in the region," PM Thomas told reporters.
According to Thomas, the Leaders of the other OECS countries all agreed with the initiative and that a Heads of Government Meeting within the OECS will be held later this year to further discuss the initiative.
PM Thomas said he believes that the people of the region have always been looking forward to some form of political integration, "and the time has come, we believe, for us to establish an authority."
He noted that although efforts were made in the past to have a regional political union, the political will was not there.
However, he said the people have always been willing to have some form of regional integration. "That initiative does not affect the present plan to create a single economy of the OECS by 2009, neither does it affect anything within the Caricom arrangement", he remarked.
"All it is saying... is that the time has come to take the integration movement at a higher level, and whether it starts with two, three or four countries, the initiative should get going," he said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter David who also voiced support for the move stated that there is a willingness on the part of the OECS countries to forge ahead to a political union.
David said that in all of the meetings held among the leaders of the various islands, it was clearly understood that closer ties are the only way to ensure the survival of the people of the region.
"The meetings with the three East Caribbean Countries indicated that there is a political will to forge ahead to a more closer union," he said.
"...We acknowledge it is not going to be smooth all the way, but the bottom line is, we have no choice but to integrate," he added.
