Prime Minister Lester Bird quoted Neruda in his intervention in the Havana Summit on 8 December 2002: a Cuba-CARICOM Summit arranged by President Fidel Castro, to which I was invited in a personal capacity. The genesis of the Havana Summit is worth recalling - and being remembered.

The eighth of December, 2002, was the 30th Anniversary of the joint establishment of diplomatic relations with the Republic of Cuba by Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago through agreements signed simultaneously in Ottawa and New York on that day in 1972 - agreements which were adopted in turn by the OECS countries after they became independent. These were historic developments. Cuba has never forgotten the acts of solidarity, and courage, which they represented.

The year 1972 was tumultuous in its own way. The 'Cold War' blew hot and cold, OPEC and new oil prices had thrown the world into turmoil and the West into panic. Richard Nixon had won a second term in the White House and the theology of Henry Kissinger reigned; but America was still in Vietnam. At the UN, the developing countries were in the thick of the New International Economic Order (NIEO) struggle. In the hemisphere, the Cuban missile crisis had drawn a line in the water.

This was the geo-political scene in which Guyana under Forbes Burnham, at the behest of the Bureau of a very divided Non-Aligned Movement, agreed to host the Meeting of Non-Aligned Foreign Ministers - the first major 'non-aligned event' in the Americas outside the UN. Guyana had been rapporteur two years before at the Lusaka Summit. The issues now dividing the Movement were replete with Cold War overtones - the seating of Sihanouk's Cambodia, membership status for the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam, and the not anodyne issue of the venue of the 1973 Summit: Algiers or Colombo.

The Foreign Ministers Meeting was held in Georgetown in August 1972. As host Foreign Minister I chaired it. The first matter for Guyana concerning Cuba was the invitation. It was never an issue with us. Cuba was a member of the Movement and would be invited and welcomed. As President Castro acknowledged at Havana, Cheddi Jagan had been an old friend of Cuba, and it had already been agreed by the region that Cuba would participate in the first CARIFESTA to be held in Georgetown in the month after the meeting.

Still, we were mindful that it would be the first fully international meeting in the hemisphere that post-revolutionary Cuba would be attending - outside the UN. Anti-Cuba sentiment was pervasive in Latin America as was adherence to the more formal diplomatic embargo under which, with OAS blessing, the countries of the hemisphere (with the exception of a principled Canada, Allende's Chile and an ambivalent Mexico) did not 'recognise' the Government of Cuba.

It was in this environment that, in inviting Cuba to attend the Foreign Ministers Meeting, Guyana signalled to Havana that when the Foreign Minister came to Georgetown we would like to 'discuss' the matter of Guyana's diplomatic relations with Cuba. The Cuban delegation was led by the wise and experienced - and much respected - Dr Raul Roa; with him was Ambassador Ricardo Alarcon (now President of the Cuban National Assembly) with whom West Indian missions had worked closely at the UN.

No sooner had I greeted Raul Roa on his arrival at Timehri than he intimated to me that, following on our signal, he had brought with him a draft 'Diplomatic Relations Agreement' and plenipotentiary powers from Fidel to conclude it. We agreed to 'talk' in Georgetown. I needed time; Guyana was serious about 'diplomatic relations' with Cuba, but we had not contemplated formally establishing them at the Non-Aligned Meeting itself. We were already skating on thin diplomatic ice. I told Raul Roa as much. He was understanding, but measured me quizzically. Was the signal from Georgetown 'diplomatic courtesy'? I assured him it was serious and substantive and that after the meeting, and separate from it, we would conclude a diplomatic relations agreement with Cuba.

In all this I was conscious of the national interests of Guyana; but I was conscious too of the interests of Caribbean integration. We were in the process of moving from 'first steps' CARIFTA to the more ambitious Community - to CARICOM. Two months away lay the Chaguaramas Summit. I asked Raul Roa to "trust me." Guyana, I told him, will establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, but we would prefer to give the three other independent CARICOM countries the chance to join us in doing so. I reminded him that Chaguaramas lay ahead. Give me three months, I said, and we will have a multiple diplomatic relations agreement. That would be good for the region, for Cuba and for Guyana, and it would make a dent in the hemispheric embargo. Raul Roa was disappointed, but he 'trusted' me; and for that I paid him tribute when I reminisced with President Castro in Havana earlier this month.

Immediately after the Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Burnham contacted Dr Williams (the doyen of Caribbean Prime Ministers), Errol Barrow (his old CARIFTA buddy); and Michael Manley (his old friend newly elected). Kamaludeen Mohammed, Dudley Thompson and 'Boogles' Williams (as an Observer) were at the meeting, and were all briefed.

I followed up the 'Cuba' discussions in Georgetown with visits to the three Prime Ministers on behalf of Burnham, inviting them to join us in recognising Cuba - but making it clear that we were committed to doing so in any event. My itinerary was Kingston, Port of Spain, Bridgetown; my appeal was to justice, to history, to regional solidarity. All three Prime Ministers agreed. And we agreed that the collective agreement of Heads of the independent countries would be signalled at Chaguaramas - and it was in an agreed Statement read by Burnham at the conference. Its substantive paragraph was as follows:

The independent English-speaking Caribbean States, exercising their sovereign right to enter into relations with any other sovereign state, and pursuing their determination to seek regional solidarity and to achieve meaningful and comprehensive economic co-operation amongst all Caribbean Countries, will seek the early establishment of relations with Cuba, whether economic or diplomatic or both.

On December 8, I delivered on my promise to Raul Roa when Oliver Jackman and Neville Selman signed the Cuba-CARICOM Diplomatic Agreement for Barbados and Guyana in Ottawa with Jose Fernandez (the present Cuban Ambassador in London); and Maxine Roberts and Eustace Seignoret signed for Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago with Ricardo Alarcon at the UN in New York. The establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba was announced simultaneously in all five capitals at 1500 hours on December, 12, 1972. The effect of this sovereign collective Caribbean act of principle was immediate. The hemispheric diplomatic embargo of Cuba was not just dented; it collapsed. Today, Cuba has formal diplomatic relations with 132 countries.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministers Meeting was a huge success. Politically, we seated Sihanouk, recognised the PRG and selected Algeria to host the 1973 Summit. On economic issues we agreed the first Action Programme for Economic Co-operation among Non- Aligned Countries. But, in a regional context, it was the discussions with Cuba that represented the real point of departure for us - one of which we can always feel proud.

It is good that in the Havana Declaration, besides the many decisions for practical action that have been taken, December 8 each year has been designated Cuba-CARICOM Day. It is a day for CARICOM to reflect with Pablo Neruda that, small as we are, we too changed that which existed, and that we can do so more and more - acting together as one.