WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris will host Jamaica’s prime minister at the White House on Wednesday as part of an effort to improve the United States’ relationship with Caribbean nations.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness is the second Carribean leader to visit Harris in Washington, and the bilateral meeting coincides with the 60th anniversary year of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Jamaica and the United States.
Holness will be the first Jamaican leader to visit the White House since a 1995 working visit by former Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson.
A senior Biden administration official told McClatchy that Holness’ visit will “underscore the importance” of the relationship with Jamaica and the region to the Biden administration. The official said the discussion will include “the COVID-19 pandemic, economic growth and recovery, and climate and energy security, among other issues.”
“The U.S.-Jamaica partnership is based on deep economic and people-to-people ties and shared interests in our Hemisphere. The vice president is looking forward to strengthening this partnership during this visit and in the months and years ahead,” the U.S. official said in a statement.
The visit is of special importance to Harris, who is of Jamaican descent. Her father Donald Harris was born in the Caribbean nation, and Harris has said her family has “immense pride” in their Jamaican heritage.
Caribbean leaders celebrated her ascent to vice president at a virtual inauguration event last year, which Holness and Harris both participated in.
Harris met last year with Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley. The meeting with Holness is her second foreign leader engagement of the week. She and President Joe Biden met separately with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the White House on Tuesday.
Harris at her fall meeting with the prime minister of Barbados called the relationship between the U.S. and the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, “an important one” and said the United States takes “very seriously” its relationship with Western Hemisphere neighbors.
Jamaica under the Trump administration sought closer ties with the U.S. much to the dismay of some of its fellow Caribbean neighbors. Holness was among a handful of Caribbean leaders who met with former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2019.
Former President Barack Obama was the last U.S. leader to visit Jamaica for a meeting with Caribbean Community leaders in 2015.
A Jamaican government source confirmed that the prime minister would be in Washington and said that national security and investment support would be a focus of the trip for Holness.
Caribbean nations have sought access to low-interest loans from international monetary institutions to help offset the impact of COVID-19 on the region’s tourism-based economies.
The U.S. has committed to donating 5.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to CARICOM countries.
The rising cost of fuel has also been a huge concern for Caribbean nations, as has the deepening political instability in Haiti.
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The Miami Herald’s Jacqueline Charles contributed reporting.
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