In other news, the UK Foreign Minister for the Americas and the Caribbean, David Rutley, has concluded his three day trip to Belize. During this visit - which he calls extremely rare - he met with Belize's prime minister, foreign minister, and visited the Coastal Plain Highway - an investment which was made possible by a UK led partnership.
And before he jetted off, he hosted a brief press conference at the airport VIP room, when we asked him his government's position on reparations for the British Empire's role in slavery in Belize.
Rutley conceded that slavery was no doubt an "abhorrent" act, but made no commitment to reparations. Instead, he said, they're making up for it by contributing to the development of countries across the Caribbean.
David Rutley, UK FM For Americas & Caribbean
"Absolutely slavery was an abhorrent practice. We're very sad about that history. Our focus is several folds. One is to make sure that we work with the Belizean government and with other affected countries to make sure that this episode is never forgotten and people learn the lessons from that terrible practice and also to make sure that we work to tackle racism in any form. And, you know, what's encouraging to see is the open society that you have here in Belize. And you know, we need to make sure that that we always have that and tackle any form of racism or discrimination. But the other thing, and this fits in with some of the other subjects we've already talked about, is making sure that we work with Belize and other impacted countries to deliver on their priorities today, whether it's on development and infrastructure like we've done, and it's not just one road, there are two roads and five hospitals that we've been involved with as well and particularly around climate change. This is a directly relevant issue that we need to help impacted countries from slavery tackle. And I'm proud of the work that we're doing jointly here, but across the Caribbean now to tackle climate change, but also to make sure that we get better access to climate financing. So the SIDS agenda that was mentioned earlier on is absolutely critical. There's a vitally important conference next year, UN Summit on SIDS. And we're working absolutely closely with CARICOM and with other key interlocutors such as Prime Minister Motley to take forward the key elements of the Bridgetown Agenda, which is vital across the Caribbean and across SIDS to help deliver. So that is our absolute focus."
"I think as I said a wide debate, lots of different audiences talking about reparations, but our focus is more on what we can do going forward in partnership to tackle the common challenges of today. So, that's the way we are tackling these issues and how we can support countries that have been impacted by slavery in the past."
