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President
George W Bush praised the prime ministers of the Bahamas,
Barbados and Belize on Thursday as “three of our ...
neighborhood’s strong leaders” and assured them
their region is important to the US.
Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, making his fourth
visit to the White House, spoke for himself and his colleagues
David Thompson of Barbados and Dean Barrow of Belize. Ingraham
said the Caribbean leaders told Bush of “a desire on
our part to have the Caribbean Basin Initiative Act extended.”
The trade agreement expires in September of this year.
Talking about US-Caribbean relations, Bush said, “We
oftentimes talk about dealing with the Middle East or dealing
on the continent of Africa, but it was important for these
leaders to know that we believe that a good, strong, healthy,
vibrant neighborhood is in the interests of the US.”
Tourism apparently took up much of the conversation among
the four. Bush said they discussed “how to make sure
that our security needs are met without interrupting the
ability of our people to travel as freely as possible and
for the ability of people to be able to make a good living
as a result of tourism.
“We
talked about tourism,” Ingraham said, “the impact
that the current increase in the price of oil is having
on travel.”
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