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P 142110Z MAR 06
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RUEHWN/AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN 5370
RUEHGE/AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN 3506
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RUEHPU/AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE 3347
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RUEHDG/AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO 2627
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

C O N F I D E N T I A L NASSAU 000442 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FROM THE AMBASSADOR FOR SECRETARY RICE, WHA A/S SHANNON, 
AND WHA/CAR 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/14/2016 
TAGS: BF ECON ETRD OTRA PGOV PREL SNAR XL
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR NASSAU CARICOM MINISTERIAL: 
SHAPING A FORWARD-LOOKING AGENDA FOR COOPERATION 
 
REF: 05 NASSAU 2107 
 
Classified By: Ambassador John D. Rood.  Reasons:  1.5 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1. (C)  SUMMARY: The Secretary's March 21-22 meeting in 
Nassau with CARICOM foreign ministers offers an opportunity 
to frame a positive, forward-looking agenda for our relations 
with the Caribbean.  With the Haitian elections behind us, 
the ministerial will allow us to reinvigorate our cooperation 
in promoting democracy, enhancing trade and economic 
competitiveness, and strengthening security and the rule of 
law.  Awareness is growing within the region that old ways -- 
of governance, protecting economies, and insularity -- can no 
longer ensure the region's viability, and that a fundamental 
transformation away from the legacy of state-centered 
economic development toward a private sector driven model is 
essential for growth and prosperity.  Your meeting should 
help stimulate this transformation, which will in turn 
support our efforts to strengthen our Third Border and 
prevent the flow of drugs, criminals, illegal migrants and 
terrorists from reaching our shores.  The Secretary's 
bilateral meeting with Bahamian Prime Minister Perry 
Christie, coming on the heels of the resolution of the Cuban 
dentist detainees, will allow us to refocus attention on our 
successful cooperative efforts in counter-narcotics and 
migrant interdiction, push for progress on the Proliferation 
Security Initiative, and encourage the government to provide 
concrete support for the new government in Haiti.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
Changing the Atmospherics in the Caribbean 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (C) In the wake of Haiti's successful elections, the time 
is ripe to turn the page in our relations with CARICOM, move 
beyond past differences over Haiti, deportees, and lost trade 
preferences, and develop a positive, forward-looking agenda. 
Your meeting in Nassau will allow us to refocus the region on 
the issues that will determine its success or failure and its 
viability as a real partner for the U.S. in the years ahead: 
reinforcing democratic institutions, enhancing economic 
competitiveness, and countering law enforcement and security 
threats, including natural disasters.  Many Caribbean 
government and private sector leaders accept the need to 
embrace long overdue economic and social changes, but they 
face an uphill battle against entrenched and outdated 
bureaucracies; inefficient and often inequitable taxation 
systems; ineffective educational systems; and a politics that 
is instinctively cautious and closed. 
 
¶3.  (C) The forward-looking agenda you will bring to Nassau 
will reinforce our broader goals of building democracy and 
pursuing transformational diplomacy aimed at making America 
safer.  CARICOM countries bring to the table strong 
democratic track records, but many countries face threats 
from criminal elements, loss of traditional economic 
mainstays, and sluggish and unresponsive government services 
that erode public trust and confidence.  You should use your 
public events to emphasize the U.S. commitment to work with 
the region to meet these challenges.  We can achieve our twin 
objectives of supporting democracy and promoting 
transformation by focusing the region on what is needed to 
compete, build prosperity, ensure security, and generate 
opportunity for the people in the region. 
 
 ¶4.  (C) The Nassau Ministerial will mark the third occasion 
you have met with CARICOM foreign ministers as a group, 
following side meetings at the OAS General Assembly in Ft. 
Lauderdale last June and at the UN General Assembly in 
September.  This sustained attention has helped dispel 
complaints that the U.S. was inattentive toward its closest 
neighbors.  Countries in the region hope that the Ministerial 
can serve as spring-board to follow-up actions -- possibly 
through issue-focused working groups -- with the ultimate 
goal being to produce enough substantive progress to merit 
consideration of a heads of state meeting further down the 
line.  As in past meetings, Haiti will loom large in your 
regional discussions, and your meeting will offer an 
opportunity to plot a path forward where we can work together 
to support the Preval government in developing the democratic 
 
institutions and generating economic growth. 
 
U.S.-Bahamas:  Reinforcing Successful Partnerships 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶5.  (C) Your bilateral meeting with Bahamian Prime Minister 
Perry Christie comes on the heels of a drawn out battle over 
the fate of two Cuban detainees that had provoked 
Congressional ire in the U.S. and substantial criticism of 
the government's handling of the issue at home and in the 
U.S.  This issue had diverted attention from the otherwise 
wide-ranging partnership we enjoy with The Bahamas.  Our law 
enforcement cooperation is perhaps the closest in the region, 
with U.S. and Bahamian police and military working 
side-by-side  to combat drug trafficking and migrant 
smuggling.  Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos (OPBAT), a 
multi-agency, multinational counter-drug operation involving 
the DEA, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army, and the Bahamian police 
has reduced the share of U.S.-destined cocaine passing 
through the Bahamas-Jamaica-Cuba vector from over 70 percent 
in the early 1980s to under 10 percent today.  On migrants, 
the U.S. Coast Guard and the Bahamian Defense Force combined 
in 2005 to interdict and repatriate nearly 5000 mainly 
Haitian illegal migrants. 
 
New Partnerships: Commercial Shipping Security 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶6.  (C) The Bahamas is one of the largest ship-registry 
countries not yet participating in the Proliferation Security 
Initiative (PSI).  After high-level Embassy pressure, they 
hosted a first round of talks in November 2005 and tell us 
they have set up a working group to study our proposal, but 
little concrete has happened.  Underscoring the importance of 
Bahamian participation in the PSI would help us expedite 
conclusion of a PSI shipboarding agreement. 
 
¶7.  (C) Likewise, Prime Minister Christie has publicly 
requested that the Freeport port be included in the 
Department of Homeland Security's Container Security 
Initiative, and the Embassy has been working with CBP to move 
this forward.  You may wish to affirm to the Prime Minister 
our commitment to implementing CSI in Freeport, and inform 
him that our CSI team will be visiting The Bahamas March 
27-28 to finalize details for the program.  Freeport has also 
been a focus of The Department of Energy's Megaports Program, 
which will allow us to work with The Bahamas in detecting and 
interdicting illicit radioactive material in container 
shipping. 
 
New Investment: Liquefied Natural Gas 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (C) U.S.-based Applied Energy Services Corporation (AES) 
has proposed a $650 million liquefied natural gas project 
which would link a re-gasification plant on the man-made 
Ocean Cay near Bimini with South Florida by pipeline.  U.S. 
and Florida regulators have approved the project, but a final 
decision by the Bahamian Cabinet has been pending for 
eighteen months despite approval in principal from the 
previous Bahamian government and approval from the Bahamian 
environmental assessment committee.  Florida Governor Jeb 
Bush discussed LNG with the Prime Minister when he visited 
The Bahamas last month, agreeing to set up a meeting between 
Florida and Bahamian environmental oversight bodies to review 
the regulatory framework in The Bahamas.  The Secretaries of 
Commerce and Energy have written the Prime Minister on this 
issue, which has also generated Congressional interest from 
SFRC Chairman Lugar, seeking government action on the 
proposal. 
 
Hesitant to Lead or Break From CARICOM 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (C) Our strong operational cooperation and deep economic 
ties -- the Bahamian economy depends overwhelmingly on 
American tourists and trade -- do not translate into support 
for U.S. foreign policy positions as much as we would expect 
from a country that shares our fundamental democratic values. 
 The Bahamas has been sensitive to accusations from within 
 
CARICOM that it is too closely tied to the U.S. and has 
therefore been reluctant to break from the group or lead it 
in "pro-U.S." directions, even when its interests align 
closely with ours.  For example, while its geographic 
position and problems arising from Haitian migrants should 
have given The Bahamas a heightened stake in promoting 
stability in Haiti, it joined CARICOM in shunning the Interim 
Government for two years until sending two  observers as part 
of CARICOM's election observation team.  No other CARICOM 
government has more at stake in Haiti, and you should 
encourage The Bahamas to push CARICOM to quickly 
reincorporate Haiti and to be more active in promoting 
stability and development there. 
 
¶10.  (C) Looking beyond Caribbean shores, you should urge The 
Bahamas to stand up internationally for the values they 
cherish domestically.  Too often, these proud democracies 
have been reluctant to step forward and speak out against 
human rights violations elsewhere in the world.  CARICOM 
countries, including The Bahamas, were particularly unhelpful 
at the UN General Assembly in 2005 where they supported 
no-action motions on multiple country-specific human rights 
resolutions, and were part of a narrow majority that blocked 
consideration of a resolution on Sudan.  Overall, CARICOM 
countries have a poor record in voting coincidence with the 
U.S.  We have made some progress in calling public attention 
to some of these votes, which has resonated with a public 
that believes strongly in democratic freedoms and the rule of 
law.  You should urge CARICOM to reconsider its no-action 
policy and urge The Bahamas and others to better reflect 
their cherished domestic principles in their international 
engagement. 
 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶11.  (C) Despite recent tensions over the Cuban detainees, 
The Bahamas, by virtue of its proximity, history, economic 
ties, and personal connections, is the most American-oriented 
country in CARICOM.  Its fate is inextricably linked to the 
tourists -- 90 percent American -- that generate its 
prosperity.  Because of extensive and ongoing personal, 
professional, and trade connections, Bahamians are open to 
U.S. views and instinctively ook North, even if they do not 
always agree withus.  Prime Minister Christie's Progressive 
Liberl Party (PLP), has governed The Bahamas for much o the 
independence era, but Christie faces a formiable challenge 
in the elections that he must cal no later than May 2007. 
His indecisiveness has become a political liability which the 
opposition has already begun to exploit.  His clumsy handling 
of the Cuban dentists and continued dithering on the LNG 
investments have reinforced this perception, so Christie will 
be eager to show that relations with the U.S. are back on 
track, but may also want to hint that he is willing to stand 
up to the U.S.  We should emphasize that the United States 
values and respects our diverse partnerships with the Bahamas 
and that our common interests can be even better served by 
deepening our cooperation and working together to advance our 
values internationally. 
 
¶12. MINIMIZED CONSIDERED. 
 
ROOD