Port of Spain, July 3 (RHC)-- The 45th Meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) began this Monday in Trinidad and Tobago on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas, which led to the creation of the bloc.

The summit that will take place until next Wednesday at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain is being attended by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who participated in the opening of the conference.

Guterres' deputy spokesman said that "he will underscore that the world needs to match the leadership, energy and commitment of Caribbean countries on issues such as the restructuring of the international financial system and the climate crisis".

Also in attendance are Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, China's Deputy Foreign Minister Hua Chunying and South Korea's Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.

For his part, Dominica's Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, who is the incoming president of CARICOM, stressed that the summit is "a time for introspection and reflection after 50 years of Caricom."

"I think we should consider is to complete the free movement lease. We cannot have an integration process and people cannot move freely, and it cannot be a class system. I think we should look at an integration movement and everyone should be part of this integration movement," he said.

The regional bloc includes Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.