By Jasminee Sahoye

The big media buzz during the last weekend was the summits of leaders from the G-8 and G-20 countries and for the first time, a few leaders from the Caribbean community were invited.

Jamaica Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, Haitian president Rene Preval and Colombia’s President, Alvaro Uribe Velez were invited to meet the leaders of the most powerful countries of the world.

“The three from the Americas (Colombia, Jamaica and Haiti) have been invited primarily for talks over a pledge of G8 help to poorer nations to deal with security threats such as terrorism and organized crime, with experts, training and funds – including help to patrol waters in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“These countries were invited because they’ve worked hard to combat security challenges and promote the fundamental underpinnings of democratic governance including the rule of law and human rights,” said Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s spokesman, Dimitri Soudas.

The Jamaican prime minister prior to leaving for Canada had said that his government was actively pursuing international expertise and resources in order to shut down international narcotic networks.

"We are expecting to arrive, very shortly, a significant level of resource support from the United States. It will include armoured carriers; it will include additional mobile equipment for the military and for the police, protective gear and so on. We are getting additional assistance from some of our other bilateral partners. We are developing a programme to access the recently boosted regional security initiative by the US which was expanded based on the announcement of Secretary of State Clinton in Barbados which will provide some assistance for us."

Golding also said that he spoke recently with President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe Velez, about co-operation in bringing narco criminals to justice.

"I got a call from President Uribe. Right now we are in discussions with them about sending some of their officers here to work with our police and military, since they have the experience in terms of how to deal with this kind of brazen, aggressive narcotics-related, criminal network."

Meanwhile, according to the declaration from the G8 meeting in Muskoka, the leaders agreed that “conflict, crime, piracy and terrorism continue to threaten global stability, security and prosperity. We, the G8, are committed to helping partner states and regions to continue to build the civilian security capacities they need to deal with these vulnerabilities. G8 leaders and African partners were joined by the presidents of Colombia and Haiti and the Prime Minister of Jamaica to address security vulnerabilities such as terrorism, proliferation, drug trafficking, the flow of illicit funds and transnational organized crime. We therefore agreed to task our ministers to consult jointly with interested partners from Africa and the Americas, as well as other parties, and to consider additional steps that might be taken to address these security vulnerabilities. To this end, we commit to strengthening: the international availability of civilian experts to support rule of law and security institutions; the capacities of key littoral states and regional organizations for maritime security; and international peace operations.”

And in more news from the Summit, Harper announced that Canada has paid off its share of Haiti’s debt to the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Canada is the first country to make all of the payments required to cancel the debt Haiti owes to all international financial institutions.

“Two weeks after the tragic earthquake in Haiti, Canada called for the full cancellation of the debt owed by Haiti to international organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund,” said the prime minister.

While the Government had already cancelled the debt owed by Haiti to Canada under the Canadian Debt Initiative before the earthquake, following the tragedy Canada led a G-20 consensus to forgive debt owed by Haiti to international financial institutions.