Caribbean 360 is reporting that Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has announced that United States president Barack Obama will meet with CARICOM leaders. “The Government of Jamaica is delighted that President Obama will be visiting Jamaica at this time. The visit of President Obama will take place on the eve of the Summit of the Americas to be held in Panama from the 10th to the 11th April 2015,” the prime minister stated.
“It is expected that the President will be proceeding from Jamaica to Panama for this hemispheric encounter which will welcome for the first time the participation of our closest neighbor, the Republic of Cuba,” Prime Minister Simpson Miller said in a statement to Parliament.
President Obama’s last meeting with CARICOM leaders was in Port of Spain, Trinidad during the Summit of the Americas six years ago. The President is scheduled to discuss issues of security and trade with the leaders of the Caribbean nations. Other international and regional issues will be discussed as well. Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Perry Christie, who is also the current president of CARICOM, will bring regional issues to the table.
President Obama’s visit to Jamaica will be the second visit of a sitting U.S. president since the country declared its independence from the United Kingdom in 1962.
Read more at Caribbean 360.