Prime Minister Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit has emphasized that Dominica’s foreign policy is based on sincerity and openness and will continue to be the driving force of the country’s national policy.
The Prime Minister during an end of year interview with GIS’ Mervin Paul said the island’s foreign policy is characterized by mutual respect.
“One has to look at foreign policy the same way you view yourself as a human being or as a resident in a community. If you live in a village and you are vex with everybody, I mean if your house is on fire, it is likely that nobody would come to your rescue but if you are surrounded by friends, anything that happens to your home or to your family, these people will be the first to come forward. But there has to be reciprocity. You cannot want everybody to be your friends and expect certain assistance from people and when it comes to you playing your part, you don’t. If there’s a cleaning up of drains in the community, you say you are out of that because the drain is lower down the road from your home and it will not affect you but it will affect five, six friends down the road, people who have helped you in the past. So we have to look at foreign policy in the same way we cultivate, create and maintain our friendships with individuals and family members and that is how Government sees it. There has to be sincerity and mutual respect even if we are 71 thousand people and China is 1.3 billion people. There has to be mutual respect because we are both nations despite the size and the culture.”
The Prime Minister said during the year 2012, Dominica was able to establish new friendships with a number of nations and was able to maintain existing friendships.
“I must say that the friendship that we have cultivated, these people have remained sincere to us and they continue to assist us in the face of their own challenges. When we take a country like Venezuela or the European Union for example, who have all these challenges and are still prepared to assist us, it tells you about the extent to which they view Dominica and Dominicans and the relationship that the Government has with them and we will continue this way. People normally ask, ‘what is it that you are giving these people?’ What we’re giving them is friendship and solidarity. China has more poverty than Dominica but because of friendship, solidarity and complementarity, they have some resources that they are willing to share with us.”
The Prime Minister says Dominica will continue its firm stance on its foreign policy as decisions are being taken in the best interest of the country. Hon. Skerrit says Dominica will seek to go into new areas of cooperation with new countries in the coming year.