The Prime Minister of Barbados, Ms. Mia Amor Mottley, was in Paris on March 10 and met with the President of the French Republic.
The two leaders were happy about the growing friendship and partnership between the countries. They both want to see a fairer international system that helps developing countries and vulnerable people get the money they need and invests in a fair transition to a greener world as a whole.
In the past few months, there has been a joint event. During COP27, a French minister came to Barbados for the first time, and now the Prime Minister is going to Paris.
The President and Prime Minister talked about how to get ready for the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact, which will take place in Paris on June 22 and 23. They agreed to keep working together closely to get ready for this important Summit, which aims to lay the groundwork for an international financial system that is more responsive, fair, and open to everyone.
The two leaders talked about how important it was for people from different continents and different parts of civil society and the private sector to come together at this event and share their ideas. They also talked about how important it was to build a new pact based on real solutions that will help pay for the fight against poverty and inequality and the transition to a low-carbon economy.
The President and the Prime Minister talked about the first promising solution idea. This idea builds on ideas that France and the G20 have put forward in recent years, as well as the ambitious and new ideas of the Bridgetown Initiative, which is led by Barbados.
The goal is to meet urgent needs for cash by making it easier to share IMF Special Drawing Rights, giving more people access to quick loans, making sure debt is treated in a more responsible way, getting the investments needed to make the economy and society more stable, and making a fair transition to a low-carbon world.
The two leaders strongly support a large increase in lending by the World Bank and other multilateral development banks, a much larger flow of private capital to developing countries, and new instruments and rules for debt sustainability that better fit the global realities of the 21st century.
Separately, the two leaders stressed how important it was to remove barriers to and strengthen the regional integration of the French communities in the Caribbean, which include Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, and Saint Barthélemy. This would help the development of the whole region.
