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The Bish­ops of the An­tilles Epis­co­pal Con­fer­ence (AEC) have ex­pressed deep con­cern over the re­cent build-up of naval and mil­i­tary as­sets in the South­ern Caribbean, warn­ing of its po­ten­tial im­pact on the re­gion’s so­cio-eco­nom­ic, po­lit­i­cal, and hu­man­i­tar­i­an sta­bil­i­ty.

As the world pre­pares to ob­serve the 59th World Day of Peace, the Bish­ops re­called the call of Pope Paul VI in 1966 for hu­man­i­ty to “pur­sue ne­go­ti­a­tion rather than war.”

They not­ed that the Caribbean, like much of the world, stands once again at a cross­roads where di­a­logue and co­op­er­a­tion are ur­gent­ly need­ed to ease geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions and fos­ter last­ing peace.