US Secretary of State Marco Rubio Ends Visit to the Caribbean Promoting New US Policies

PARAMARIBO, Suriname – United States Secretary of  State, Marco Rubio ended his first official visit to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries on Thursday outlining Washington’s new foreign policy agenda while reiterating the North American country’s desire for close and improved relations with the region.

President Chan Santokhi (Left) and US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio during Thursday’s news conference (CMC Photo)Rubio acknowledged that the United States needed to revised its foreign policy, particularly after the past 20  years, saying “it has largely ignored opportunities.

“When we have found close partners, we have often in our foreign policy neglected those opportunities, and we spent a lot of time on problems instead and on countries and leaders that give us a hard time.  We’re going to change that.  We want to change that.  President Trump wants to change that.

“President Trump wants to make it clear that if you are a friend and ally, a partner of the United States, there are benefits for your country and for your people in doing so, and we want to enter it in terms of partnership.

“That’s the way we view it.  And so we wanted to take a particular interest in visiting and reaffirming our ties to both leaders and countries who have been strong partners, and you have been a very strong partner of the United States,”  Rubio  said on the last stop of a two-day visit that took him to Jamaica, Guyana and Suriname, holding bi-lateral talks also with the heads of government from Barbados,  Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti.

He said stability, security, and prosperity are necessary in the region and that Washington believes “it is in our national interest to have a Caribbean region that is safe and stable and prosperous”.

President Chandrikapersad “Chan” Santokhi said that Suriname has a longstanding and strategic partnership with the United States and that during the meeting “ we have discussed opportunities for strengthening and expanding our bilateral relation and cooperation and furtherance of our partnership regionally”.

He  said the two countries have agreed to work together to attract American investors to Suriname.

“After all, cooperation with America and American business leads back to the beginning of the 19th century, and we currently have significant investment from the American companies, particularly in the oil and gas industry but also in the gold sector,”  Santokhi said, looking forward to US business participation in the Surinamese Energy, Oil, and Gas Summit and Exhibition (SEOGS) here in June this year.

“The importance of energy security in the Caribbean region was also addressed and discussed with Suriname, but also with Guyana, which are playing a crucial role.  Both countries will become important partners for the Caribbean and the Western Hemisphere,” Santokhi added.

As he did during his visit to Jamaica and Guyana, Rubio  defended the Trump administration’s decision to revamp the US aid program, saying “this is one of the reasons why I wanted to come to the Caribbean.

”For too long, our foreign aid has been driven by what we think you need.  We tell you, okay, these are the five things we’re going to do for you.  Well, those aren’t the five things you want.  We’re changing that.  We want to make sure that we’re providing the assistance that the countries need, and we want this power back over to our embassies under the State Department so we’re providing the assistance you need.”

He said that the best foreign aid programs are the ones that come to an end because they have achieved their purpose.

“The purpose of foreign aid is not for the United States to be here for 25 providing law enforcement.  The purpose of the United States is to help you build the capacity so you will be able to do it sustainably forever.

“Our job is to help you become self-sustained in this regard; and not only self-sustaining, but the goal is ultimately to help you be able to do this so well that you’re now teaching other countries how to do it.  You now become the country that helps others do it as well, and we think we can help with technology, with personnel, with best practices.  We’ve talked about some of this already.

“We want to continue to build on that, because …you don’t want to see for a country is a place where drug trafficking organizations and gangs say that’s a place where we can run guns, that’s a place where we can move drugs, because they don’t have the resources available to stop us.

“Then you become a magnet for that sort of activity, and nothing will set you back on economic growth and prosperity faster than that.  When these vicious gangs get into a country, they start shooting each other and anyone who’s standing in between, and it destabilizes society.  You never want to reach that point, and we want to help you prevent that.”

He said Washington wants the drug dealers to say “I don’t want to go through Suriname because their police departments and their law enforcement is so strong they’ll catch us; let’s go somewhere else, or let’s go into another line of work.  And that’s what we want to see.

“So we are open to any programs we can do to build the capacity – which is already extensive; this partnership’s very close.”

Rubio also used the occasion of is visit to the region, to outline Washington’s problem with China’s role in the Caribbean.

“So what I want is for countries to have an alternative to that.  What we want is for countries to have an alternative to that.  We , if you’re going to build a road, I want you to, like, have a real road.”

He said also that Chinese companies undertake projects in the Caribbean that are “always overbudget” and bring in “their own workers, don’t even hire the locals.

Rubio said that Chinese involvement in the telecommunications sector is also of interest to Washington, adding that if the system is “controlled by Chinese companies, you’re going to have trouble having American investors come in.

“Because they don’t want all their stuff stolen.  They don’t want all their stuff yanked out by some back door that the Chinese have installed in their telecommunications system.  Again, we’ve had to face that too in America, because Huawei was deploying in America as well.

“Again, we have to have an alternative, though.  There has to be somebody else that comes along and says, we can do it too, and we won’t spy on you when we do it.

“So our goal is twofold: create these options; but not just options that don’t – that – to China; options to work that involves bad workmanship, overbudget, with debt attached, and using their own workers instead of yours.  That’s the alternative we want to provide in any endeavor we can.”

Asked by reporters whether he had any comments on cooperation with China in this hemisphere, President Santokhi replied “I think the position which has been addressed by Secretary of State Rubio is quite clear what the position of United States of America is.

“Our position as a country is that we are developing our countries with international cooperation with a lot of countries – more than 170 countries we are cooperating.  All these co-operations are based on pragmatism, based on the needs and the national interest of the countries.

“So in relation to China, what we are doing as a country is that we do have several areas of development.  We are looking for investors.  We are inviting investors.  And just what the minister has said, not all the countries are showing up.  There are sometime more countries which are showing up for their interests and their projects.  So we need to keep that aspect also into consideration.”

He said that a lot  of projects now being implemented in Suriname are being done  by Chinese companies and  were granted through international procedures, and through international bidding procedures our local companies.

“And most of these projects were financed by the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and our view is that soon you will have more opportunities for the Surinamese companies, more and more Surinamese companies will evolve.

“And on the other side, we hope that more United States company will offer themselves and come to Suriname.  We’ll offer them all the incentives, and I think Suriname is a very close country to the United States of America,”  Santokhi  added.