As regional economic groupings go, CARICOM is perhaps the smallest in the world. But neither size nor limitation of resources have been allowed to stand in its way in doing what's yet to be done by older and bigger economic integration movements in this and other regions:

Namely, to speak with clarity and forthrightness against any sidelining of the UN in the rebuilding efforts of post-war Iraq and in ensuring that its vital oil resource is utilised for the benefit of the Iraqi people.

It is all the more encouraging for our Community's governments to have taken this stand in the face of an arrogant rebuke from President George Bush's special envoy to the Western Hemisphere, Otto Reich, when reacting recently to criticisms within CARICOM on the implications of a pre-emptive war against a sovereign nation.

Embracing countries of the four major language areas of the Caribbean, a region that bridges the two Americas, CARICOM's position would have been noted by its allies in the wider Association of Caribbean States, the Organisation of American States and, of course, those in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group.

The CARICOM "Statement on the War in Iraq", issued on April 14, which is better appreciated in the context of the collective pre-war position stated in Port-of-Spain on February 15, would by now have been circulated to the member states of the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly.

Whatever the overt and covert pressures some have had to face, it is gratifying to know that, in the end, the leaders held together and a fundamental principle in foreign policy has not been sacrificed on the altar of expediency.

That fundamental principle is in support of multilateralism in the conduct of foreign relations and in opposition to a unilateralist approach that ignores the very "raison d'etre' for the United Nations.

"The Caribbean Community, as a grouping of small states and an integral part of the international community", declared the leaders in unison, "must continue to rely heavily on the United Nations, the primacy of international law, and adherence to international obligations for the protection of its sovereignty, territorial integrity and the furtherance of its interests".

With this firm philosophical basis, they went on to state: "It is, therefore, the view of the Community that in the post-war environment in Iraq, the United Nations must play a central role in the provision of humanitarian assistance and in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of that country's political, institutional and physical structures. The interest and will of the Iraqi people must be paramount in this process..."