UK OT minster admits strains ahead of meeting

(CNS): The increasingly strained relationship between the United Kingdom and a numberof its overseas territories will be in the spotlight next week when the Cayman Islands premier McKeeva Bush and ten other leaders from other overseas territories gathering in London to meet with the OT minister, Chris Bryant, at the Overseas Territories Consultative Council. Bryant said a lot had happened since 2008, and with a number of difficult issues to address there was much to discuss with the OT elected leaders.

“Much has happened since territory leaders gathered in London 12 months ago. Developments across many of the Territories, not least in the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the economic and financial services challenges that many of them face, have, in some cases, put our relationship under strain. We’ve got a great deal to discuss and difficult issues to address,” the FCO minister stated.

“I’m looking forward to open and frank discussions and to working with Territory leaders to resolve those issues and to strengthening our relationship. We value our relationship with the Overseas Territories highly and are keen to maintain that bond of friendship, even if at times we have to be critical friends.”

The eleventh meeting of the Overseas Territories Consultative Council (OTCC), a key event in the British Government/Overseas Territories calendar, takes place on 9 December and will be Chris Bryant’s first Council. Discussion will reportedly cover a range of topics, including the UK/Overseas Territories relationship; economic issues in the light of the global crisis; financial services regulation following the G20 Summit; human rights; public sector reform; the environment; and immigration issues affecting the Territories.

Premiers, chief ministers and their equivalents from Britain’s Overseas Territories will be attending as well as UK ministers, including Michael Foster MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for International Development;  Huw Irranca-Davies MP, the Minister for the Natural and Marine Environment, Wildlife and Rural Affairs at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; and Meg Hillier, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Identity at the Home Office.

This year, at the request of overseas territory leaders, a forum is being held the day before the Consultative Council, on 8 December, to review the 1999 Government White Paper “Partnership for Progress and Prosperity – Britain and the Overseas Territories”.  The White Paper established the principles that have guided the relationship between the UK and Territories since 1999.

The territory leaders attending this year’s OTCC are Osbourne Fleming, Chief Minister , Anguilla; Ewart F Brown, Premier, Bermuda;  Ralph T O’Neal, Premier, the British Virgin Islands; McKeeva Bush, Premier, the Cayman Islands; Dick Sawle, Member of the Legislative Assembly, the Falkland Islands; Reuben Meade, Chief Minister, Montserrat; Michael Warren, Mayor, Pitcairn Islands; Cyril Gunnell Councillor, St Helena; Conrad Glass, Chief Islander, Tristan da Cunha; and Ann Miller, Councillor, Ascension Island.