At the top of the news, we showed you our interview with the prime minister outside our studio. But before that, he was a guest on Sunup on 7 where he spoke about his travels and the work that he had done.
The last we spoke to him, he was in Lisbon, Portugal, and there were two more countries on his list: Suriname and Guyana.
This morning, he assured the hosts that he hadn't been sight seeing - but rather he'd spent his time away trying to put Belize on the map.
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"In Caricom, even Guyana the food security or the cultural portfolio and President Ali has been very active in getting it done. I think what he has done I think as you know Guyana has found some of the largest oil reserves in the world and he, you have to give him credit. He is afraid like what has happened to other countries with oil, they depend only on oil and they have a lot of land, they have a lot opf forest cover and believe that agriculture can play a very important role in Guyana and Surinam and he and I have developed a pretty good friendship and relationship and so he was the one that said lets sign - we have a lot that we can learn. Actually, Belize is advance when it comes to agriculture over both Surinam and Guyana and they can learn from us and ofcourse we can learn from them and so we said that both of us we can sign this agreement and we can help one another in issues especially agriculture and sharing of technology and ideas and products and markets etc."
Host
"The visas with the EU, because I know that..."
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"We continue to work on that and I think we are getting closer. As we make the point Belizeans dont go to live to the EU, we go to visit and come back. The US may be a different story, but not Europe. Most important thing we have an antiquated passport system, a passport system that the previous system from 2018. In the cabinet we saw the records that they knew that it needs to replace. They didn't do anything. So now it has come to a crisis position. Its obsolete, the equipment is run out, there are no parts, there is no support, nothing for that system. Just by the grace of God and the people at immigration are still keeping that going - the few that are still working. We are working on a new system what we call an e-passport and the e-passport has a microchip embedded in the passport that will have your biometrics and so what the EU are saying they will do one of two things, either they declare us visa waiver, waiving the requirements or since you have the biometrics, have the equipment here."
Host
"That would be so helpful - you have to go to Mexico City or Guatemala..."
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Or El Salvador and that itself is another $3,000 per person. So a family of 3, you're looking at $10,000 just to be able to get the visa."
And in Suriname, the PM handed over the chairmanship to President Chan Santokhi. And he spoke this morning about the work that had gotten done during his term.
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"This has been the sixth most active bonds that Caricom has had in a very long time and I was congratulated. We had meetings with the Vice President on two different occasions; one virtual, one in person. I participated in the President of the United States on Covid. I represented Caricom ofcourse and spoke on behalf of Caricom - had several meetings. Summit of Americas was a stunning success for Caricom, because we had a meeting schedule with the Vice President, but we said we need to meet with the President and all long we were saying it is important to invite everyone and I repeat the Summit of the Americas is not based on ideology, but based on geography, so the host country has an responsibility to invite everyone. Long story short, we managed to make some breakthrough, we understand also the national politics in the United States, but then President Biden met with us also in the Summit and then we agree to set up 3 committees; one to look at food security, energy security and affordable financing for development for the region along with Dominican Republic. These themes has just been set, they are starting to meet, they are starting to come up with plans. We pointed to both President Biden and Vice President Harris that the last time United States had a meaningful engagement with Caricom was during the Reagan presidency and so they expressed that they want now to start to get more on."
