On March 10, 2014, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Mr. Ahmet Davutoğlu upon invitation participated in the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines as special guest.

As part of the Summit, Foreign Minister Davutoğlu met with foreign ministers of 14 member countries of CARICOM at a working breakfast hosted by Minister of Foreign Affairs of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Mr. Camillo Gonsalves.

In his speech Foreign Minister Davutoğlu stated that Turkey’s high level contacts with Caribbean countries have increased especially during the last two years.

Foreign Minister Davutoğlu said that he is always interested in rich and historical Caribbean culture and emphasized that Turkey is determined to develop its bilateral and trade relations with the region.

Pointing that the number of Turkish embassies in the Caribbean and Latin America has increased rapidly, Foreign Minister Davutoğlu noted that the number of Turkish embassies will reach to 12 with the embassies to be opened in Panama and Costa Rica.

Maintaining that Turkey is among the rising donor countries in the world, Foreign Minister Davutoğlu recalled that last year Turkey contributed 2 million US Dollars to the Caribbean Development Fund (CDF) and said “I am honored to announce here today that we have decided to make an additional contribution of 2 million dollars to the CDF for 2014. This brings our overall contribution to 8 million US Dollars”.

Foreign Minister Davutoğlu in his speech also touched on Turkey’s candidacy of non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council for the term 2015-2016. “We believe that Turkey can provide significant added value to global peace and security in an era of critical and rapid change in regional and international affairs” said Foreign Minister Davutoğlu. He pointed out that Turkey during its term in the Security Council in 2009-2010 followed an active stance in order to bring about durable and comprehensive solutions to the issues on the UN Security Council’s agenda and added that if the UN members place their trust in Turkey for another term, Turkey will continue its active stance.