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CARI­COM Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Dr Car­la Bar­nett has called on the re­gion to deep­en uni­ty and col­lec­tive ac­tion as Caribbean states con­front the ef­fects of nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, geopo­lit­i­cal pres­sures and eco­nom­ic un­cer­tain­ty.

In her End of Year Mes­sage, ti­tled “Build­ing a Re­silient and Unit­ed Caribbean”, Dr Bar­nett said the chal­lenges faced by the Caribbean over the past year had ex­posed vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties but al­so re­in­forced the val­ue of re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion.

She point­ed to the dev­as­ta­tion caused by hur­ri­canes Beryl in 2024 and Melis­sa in 2025, which re­sult­ed in deaths and wide­spread dam­age in Ja­maica and Haiti, not­ing that re­cov­ery would re­quire sig­nif­i­cant time and re­sources.