Prime Minister Gonsalves elected president pro-tempore of CELAC

By Caribbean News Global

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – The President of the European Council, Charles Michel and the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves announced that the next EU-CELAC Summit of heads of state and government will take place in Brussels on July 17 and 18, when Spain holds the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

President Michel congratulated prime minister Gonsalves on the assumption of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as the new pro-tempore presidency of CELAC.

“First, I would like to thank you for electing me as president pro tempore of Celac for 2023. St Vincent and the Grenadines is one of the smallest countries in this organization and we have been working over the years with Celac,” Gonsalves said at the end of the plenary of the VII Summit of heads of state and government of the organization held in Buenos Aires.

The EU-CELAC Summit will further strengthen the bi-regional partnership of the EU and the CELAC countries on shared priorities like digital and green transitions, the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss, health, food security, migration, security and governance or the fight against transnational crime.

The president and the prime minister congratulated the president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández on his successful pro tempore presidency of CELAC.

“We are going to work very closely with all the states,” president Fernández said, noting that he would seek to “capitalize on the great work done by Mexico and Argentina,” the last two countries to preside over CELAC.