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Jamaica - Foreign Relations

Jamaica has diplomatic relations with most nations and is a member of the United Nations and the Organization of American States. It was an active participant in the April 2001 Quebec Summit of the Americas. Jamaica is an active member of the British Commonwealth, the Non-Aligned Movement, the G-15, and the G-77. Jamaica is a beneficiary of the Cotonou Conventions, through which the European Union (EU) grants trade preferences to selected states in Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Historically, Jamaica has had close ties with the U.K., but trade, financial, and cultural relations with the United States are now predominant.

Jamaica is linked with the other countries of the English-speaking Caribbean through the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and more broadly through the Association of Caribbean States (ACS). The Caribbean Community was founded in 1973 as the institutional vehicle through which the region could best pursue the vision for a united, integrated community. As one of the founding members of the Caribbean Community, Jamaica continues to play an important role in the regional integration movement to the attainment of its national development goals and for the advancement of the region as a whole. CARICOM’s tangible benefits are evident in areas of functional cooperation such as agriculture (CARDI), education (UWI, CSEC, CAPE), sports (CARIFTA Games), disaster preparedness and response (CDEMA), climate change (Five C’s), security (CBSI), project financing through the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), broadcasting and information (Caribbean Broadcasting Union), health (PANCAP for HIV/AIDS and CARPHA) and culture (CARIFESTA).

Under the British Government's International Strategic Priorities, principal British interests in Jamaica include: reducing the harm to the UK from international crime, including drug trafficking, people smuggling and money laundering; promoting sustainable development and poverty reduction underpinned by human rights, democracy, good governance and protection of the environment; managing migration and combating illegal immigration; and delivering high quality support for British nationals abroad, in normal times and in crises.

Poverty reduction is the main focus of Britain's development assistance in Jamaica. The Department for International Development (DFID) had an aid program for Jamaica worth in the region of £2.5 million a year. In addition, the UK also waives approximately £5-6m of Jamaican debt annually. Between 2008-2011 DFID will continue to promote safety, security and access to justice for all Jamaicans. Major projects include assistance to the program to reform the Jamaican police force; assistance to community security initiatives and other programmes related to regional issues around economic growth, disaster risk reduction, HIV and AIDS and gender.

Jamaica's foreign policy orientation shifted under Michael Manley, who decided that Jamaicans, in order to solve their economic problems, needed to break out of their traditional reliance on the United States and the Commonwealth of Nations. Jamaican-United States relations were strained after the Manley government established diplomatic relations with Cuba in late 1972, at a time when a majority of the Organization of American States (OAS) had voted against such recognition. In the late 1970s, Jamaican-United States relations were aggravated further by Manley's anti-United States rhetoric in Third World forums, his government's close relations with Cuba, his staunch support for Cuban interventionism in Africa, and his defense of the placement of Soviet combat troops in Cuban bases.

Jamaica had no formal relations with any communist state until Manley's government opened ties with the Soviet Union, Cuba, and China in 1972. The Manley government later developed diplomatic ties with Eastern European countries. In addition to his ideological sympathies with the socialist world, Manley sought new relationships of trade, technical assistance, loans, and direct aid from communist countries. He made his first visit to the Soviet Union in April 1979. While there, he signed a long-term agreement for Jamaican aluminum exports, as well as joint accords on sea navigation and fisheries. In addition, Moscow granted Jamaica a long-term loan to finance the purchase of Soviet goods. Manley also signed trade agreements with Hungary and Yugoslavia and established diplomatic and commercial relations with Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

Manley's government developed particularly close relations with Cuba during the late 1970s. Manley visited Cuba in July 1975 and sent a PNP delegation to the First Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in Havana that December. Cuban president Fidel Castro reciprocated Manley's visit by going to Jamaica in October 1977. Numerous Jamaicans, including members of the Manley government, were sent to Cuba for ideological indoctrination and paramilitary training as members of brigadista groups.

After becoming prime minister in 1980, Seaga reversed Jamaica's pro-Cuban, Third World-oriented foreign policy and began close, cooperative relations with the United States administration of President Ronald Reagan. Seaga was the first foreign leader to visit Reagan following Reagan's inauguration in January 1981. A Stone Poll conducted that month indicated that 85 percent of the Jamaican electorate supported Seaga's close ties to Reagan. That year United States aid to Jamaica increased fivefold.

Manley's views on foreign affairs in the 1980s continued to reflect his left-of-center, Third World orientation and therefore clashed frequently with those held by Seaga. Manley maintained close relations with Fidel Castro, whom he visited periodically in Havana for private talks. The PNP declared its intention to renew Jamaican-Cuban relations, broken by Seaga in 1981. Manley and the PNP also were critical of the alleged militarization of the Commonwealth Caribbean and United States military activities in the region. The PNP opposed Jamaica's participation in the joint United States- Caribbean military operation in Grenada in October 1983, as well as participation in regional military maneuvers with the United States.

Grenada was a particularly divisive issue in 1979—83. The assassination of Maurice Bishop in Grenada and the subsequent multinational military intervention in October 1983 had a major impact on Jamaican domestic politics. PNP supporters favored the Bishop regime, whereas JLP adherents were strongly critical of it.

With the principal exceptions of South Africa and the events in Grenada, the Jamaican electorate generally has evinced little interest in foreign policy issues since independence. The level of public and parliamentary information or discussion on international problems has been low. Public commentaries on foreign policy issues were limited to views expressed by the urban elite and intellectuals in the Daily Gleaner and on radio talk shows.