Charlestown Nevis (September 20, 2006)
Canadian High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, His Excellency Mr. Michael Welsh on Tuesday 19, paid a half-day visit to Nevis, where he met and held discussions with Premier, the Hon Joseph Parris and Deputy Governor General, His Hon Mr Eustace John.
The Barbados based Diplomat sought to establish linkages with the new Premier of the Nevis Island Administration and to improve on the existing relations between both countries during the meeting which was held at the Conference Room at the Oualie Beach Hotel.Premier Parry welcomed the High Commissioner to his first meeting and acknowledged, “It is my greatest pleasure to welcome you to Nevis at this time, when we have just taken the government and celebrating our 23rd Independence Day. I do hope that you enjoy the brief stay here on Nevis.”
“I appreciate the close relationship that we have had with Canada over these years and may I say that the relationship goes back to maybe 200 years, because when we were both colonies, we used to work together. You send us horses and flour and we send you sugar and molasses, so we have this long standing relationship and many of our people are living in Canada,” said Premier Parry.
The Diplomat, who was on his second visit to Nevis, told the Government Press that his country had assisted with the development of Nevis, in that, there was a long standing private sector on the island of Nevis, the Four Seasons Resort and that he was very pleased to hear of another Canadian investor interested in doing business on the island.
“We have a long standing relationship with a number of non governmental groups here in Nevis that we’ve helped through funds available to us through the High Commission in Barbados. When I was here in June, I had the opportunity to visit the Alexander Hamilton Museum and Restoration here, which is a delightful place and to see some crafts that we had assisted various small scale corporative developments here in Nevis, putting together to promote as community develops individuals,” said Mr. Welsh.
The former Director General in Foreign Affairs, International Trade Division with responsibility for the Caribbean and all of Latin America, commented, “This is one of those occasions, in order to establish a government to government relationship and to wish the new authorities the best and to offer assistance in whatever way we might be able to do so.
“I also wanted to call upon the Deputy Governor General as well since I hadn’t had an opportunity to do that in my visit back in June. It is also important to do, as a Representative of the Queen.”