ACS Foreign Affairs Ministers to meet next week in Panama

Ministers of Foreign Affairs from the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) will gather in Panama from Nov. 28 to 29 prior to the Fourth Summit of ACS Heads of State and Government scheduled for Feb. 13 to 14 next year in Panama City, an official source revealed.

Panama’s Foreign Affairs Minister Harmodio Arias told the press that his peers of the Caribbean Basin, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico and Colombia will forward the details of the projected ACS Summit.

Attendants to the ACS Summit are supposed to tackle issues dealing with travel security and transportation, among other matters.

Founded in 1994, the Association of Caribbean States gathers 28 member states broken down in full-time members and associated ones.

The ACS full-time members are divided in four groups: The Group of Three (Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia); the Caribbean Community (made up of 15 nations); Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Belize and El Salvador), and the so-called nonpermanent members (Cuba, Panama and the Dominican Republic).

The associated members are Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles and France, representing its Caribbean departments of Guadeloupe, French Guyana and Martinique.

The Grand Caribbean takes in an area of 3,168,993 square miles with a population of 230 million Spanish, French and English-speaking inhabitants. Half that figure is clustered in Latin America and the Caribbean.