NOW that the breakfast meeting in New York between President George W. Bush and four Caribbean Community leaders has been scripted into official record, we are to learn who among the 'CARICOM Four' will provide a briefing on the outcome for the Community Secretariat to transmit to all of the other 11 heads of government.
The responsibility could be that of President Bharrat Jagdeo, who played the role of de facto outgoing CARICOM chairman right up to the Montego Bay Summit last July; if not St. Lucia's Prime Minister Kenny Anthony, who has lead role for governance and justice among Community leaders.
The two other heads of government guests for President Bush's breakfast meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York were Prime Ministers Keith Mitchell of Grenada and Perry Christie of The Bahamas.
More than the process of communicating the outcome to their fellow heads of government - via the Community Secretary General, Edwin Carrington in Georgetown, or through current CARICOM Chairman, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson - what is important is the core message the four had for President Bush during the more than hour-long meeting.
Patterson, who addresses the UN General Assembly tomorrow, was to have been among those who accepted the breakfast invitation, but excused his absence because, as he said, of a "scheduling conflict" with meetings at home that had previously been arranged.
It may have been good diplomatic footwork not to be seen to have compromised himself as Chairman of CARICOM, knowing that at least nine other heads of government of a Community that prides itself in coordination on foreign policy objectives, were not invited to breakfast with the US President.
Patterson, however, prefers neither credit for his stance nor to offer any further comment while he awaits to learn of the outcome of the meeting with Bush by his four CARICOM colleagues.
And his Barbadian counterpart, Owen Arthur, in a response that perhaps characterised the sentiments of other heads of government excluded from the breakfast meeting, said:
"Mr. Bush is at liberty to invite whomever he wants to a meeting ... I am not saying anymore except to add that it shouldn't divide the Caribbean. We have a duty for the interest of the region first and foremost..."
While leaders like Patterson and Arthur, and also, as reported earlier, St. Vincent and the Grenadines' Ralph Gonsalves, were understandably playing it cool with diplomatic responses, I have an assessment of my own.
Badly advised
That is, if further evidence was required of how ill-advised are the advisers to President Bush on approaches to improve USA-Caribbean Community relations, then it was dramatically highlighted by the restricted list of invitees for that working breakfast last Wednesday.
For a start, the President's people would know that in its operations as a Community of sovereign states, CARICOM has a management bureau that functions between ministerial meetings and summits.
The current CARICOM Bureau comprises the Prime Ministers of Jamaica and his counterparts in Antigua and Barbuda (Lester Bird) and Dominica (Pierre Charles).
In the absence of a meeting of all CARICOM leaders and Bush, it seems logical for the Bureau to have been chosen to represent the Community. Providing, of course, that proper procedures were followed by Washington in the first place for the breakfast meeting with the President.
It is evident that there are tensions in the relationship between CARICOM and the Bush Administration.
Whatever the difficulties, they would be of Washington's own creation - whether they relate to our principled relationship with Cuba; opposition to the pre-emptive war against Iraq, or favouring the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
According to reports out of New York attributed to comments by the Prime Ministers of Grenada and The Bahamas in particular, neither the differences over the ICC nor the sidelining of the UN in the war against Iraq was raised by either side.
But they apparently "agreed to disagree over Cuba", to quote Grenada's Mitchell, while The Bahamas' Christie offered to host a special summit with Bush and all CARICOM heads of government - an offer apparently subtly not taken by the President.
The US military invasion of Grenada in October 1983 had marked a tragic division among member states of CARICOM. But the Bush Administration, with its core of ideological hawks - including those with responsibility for Latin America and the Caribbean, like Otto Reich and Roger Noriega - seem not to understand the depth of unity that now exists within the 15-member Community.
Questions
Questions? Why, in this third year of the Third Millennium would the world's sole superpower be so obsessed with wanting to isolate a small Caribbean nation some 90 miles off its shore, and to punish, in various ways, sovereign nations that will not confirm to its anti-Cuba policies and strategies but are in no way hostile to the USA?
Further, how could Washington have been so insensitive, if not really contemptuous, of Caribbean peoples and governments in unilaterally choosing which five heads of government of 14 independent CARICOM states, should be invited for the working breakfast with President Bush?
Instead of inviting Prime Minister Patterson, without first ascertaining his availability, he could have been consulted as current Chairman of CARICOM, on a likely delegation of Community leaders to meet with President Bush for that breakfast meeting.
Or, perhaps the CARICOM Secretariat could have been informed of the President's interest in having some CARICOM heads of government join him for a working breakfast and leave the Secretariat to advise Washington on the possible composition of the delegation.
We are a small and poor sub-region of the world, but our dignity should not be taken for granted. Not even by a historically valued friend like the USA.
It would NOT have been beyond the capacity, the intellectual resources of the Bush people who inform and act on US foreign policy objectives, to avoid the kind of discriminatory, invidious guest list issued for that working breakfast. So why did it happen?
I, for one, did not have to await the outcome of Wednesday's working breakfast with Bush by the four CARICOM leaders to know that there would have been NO breaking of ranks by them on policies and strategies that are fundamental to the Community's foreign policy objectives.
Those policies would certainly include: maintaining good relations with the USA; unwavering commitment to the central role of the UN in international peace and development; holding the line on solidarity and friendship with Cuba; and remaining partners in multilateral, global initiatives to combat narco trafficking, gun-smuggling and terrorism to ensure a peaceful, productive environment.
It is doubtful with his final year election campaign to get officially in gear soon, President Bush would consider it a priority to have a special US-CARICOM Summit in Nassau, as proposed during his breakfast meeting by Prime Minister Christie.
But he could not have missed the concern of the four CARICOM leaders that they and ALL of their colleagues do want an improved relationship with the USA, and not to be stuck with a Washington-shaped shopping list of priorities on Caribbean development.
All sides must now look beyond that breakfast bungle.