MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Dominica disassociates from barring Falklands’ flagged vessels from its ports

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit takes distance from ALBA

The Caribbean island nation of Dominica has joined Antigua and Barbuda in seeking to clear the air on an ALBA statement supporting Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands, in Buenos Aires dispute with Britain over the South Atlantic Islands.

The statement ends with a sentence suggesting that member states of the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) “support the decision made by the countries of the region to ban ships with the colonial flag imposed on the Malvinas from entering their ports”.

Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said after returning from the ALBA summit in Caracas, Venezuela, that his government was not too concerned about the banning of ships aspect of the declaration, because there were no Falkland Island ships calling on Dominica.

However Antigua and Barbuda, another OECS (Organization of Eastern Caribbean States) member of ALBA, has since distanced itself from that part of the declaration.

In a just released statement, the Dominica government says it “has not granted its support to any call for the region to ban ships with the colonial flag imposed on the Malvinas from entering its ports, as stated in the said declaration”.

“Dominica therefore disassociates itself from statements regarding the banning of ships carrying the flag of the Falklands from entering its ports,” the government statement said.

The Venezuelan-Cuban inspired and Venezuelan financed ALBA group is made up of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, St Vincent & Grenadines, plus Haiti as an observer, Surinam and St Lucia as special membership.

However the governments of Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda urge Britain and Argentina “to comply with UN General Assembly Resolution 31/49, abstaining from adopting decisions which imply the introduction of unilateral modifications in the situation while the islands are undergoing the process recommended by the General Assembly”