Caribbean Urged to Coordinate with Latin America
E. Benito Wheatley, Special Envoy of the Virgin Islands Premier, urged Caribbean governments to prepare coordinated positions ahead of ECLAC meetings, warning against attending intergovernmental sessions without prior consultation. He called for using the CDCC to hold virtual preparatory meetings before the Ninth Forum on Sustainable Development in Santiago in April 2026.
Benito Wheatley, the Special Envoy of the Virgin Islands Premier, has urged Caribbean countries to stop treating regional diplomacy as “meeting for meeting’s sake” and to better prepare for engagement with Latin America. Speaking at the 22nd Meeting of the Monitoring Committee (MonCom) of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC) held in Port of Spain on December 8-9, 2025, Wheatley said improved coordination is essential ahead of key ECLAC events. “Too often we arrive at intergovernmental meetings without having met prior to ventilate issues and coordinate our positions, so that we are better prepared to engage with our Latin American counterparts,” Wheatley told delegates.
He argued that attending the biennial CDCC meeting and the following year’s monitoring meeting in isolation is insufficient and amounts to “just going through motions.” Wheatley proposed that the CDCC be used proactively as a vehicle to prepare for critical meetings of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
He highlighted the Ninth Meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development in Santiago, Chile, in April 2026 as a pressing example where Caribbean unity of purpose will matter. With progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) falling short of 2030 targets, Wheatley said Latin America and the Caribbean must help shape a post-2030 development framework. “Ahead of the forum, the Caribbean requires its own preparatory meeting to coordinate our positions.
Such a preparatory meeting can be done virtually, and this should be our approach for other ECLAC meetings,” he said. For BVI residents, Wheatley’s message underscores the territory’s stake in regional policy decisions that influence climate resilience, economic recovery, and sustainable use of natural resources.
The Virgin Islands is among the Caribbean members of ECLAC — a group that also includes Anguilla, Aruba, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Sint Maarten, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands — all of whom stand to be affected by any post-2030 development agenda.
ECLAC’s mandate is to promote economic, social and environmental development through research, policy advice and technical cooperation. Wheatley’s call for advance coordination and virtual preparatory meetings aims to ensure Caribbean positions are coherent and influential when negotiating with larger Latin American partners.
Local officials and stakeholders in the Virgin Islands will need to engage with the Premier’s office and regional CDCC processes to shape those positions and protect the territory’s interests in the upcoming regional negotiations.
Primary source: VINO