SINT MAARTEN PHILIPSBURG – On Tuesday, October 24, 2023, the Parliament of Sint Maarten hosted a Presidium Contactplan meeting with colleague Parliamentarians from the countries of Aruba, Curaçao and Suriname. This meeting was initially scheduled for Monday, October 23, but could not take place due to delays in flight connectivity as a result of Hurricane Tammy.
The Presidium meeting consisted of the President of the Parliament of Aruba, Mr. Edgard Vrolijk, the President of the Parliament of Curacao, Mrs. Charetti America-Francisca, the President of the Parliament of Sint Maarten, Mr. Sidharth Bijlani, the President of the National Assembly of Suriname, Mr. Marinus Bee, and the chairpersons or appointed Members of the Committees of Kingdom Affairs (and or International Relations) of the Parliaments of the countries.
During this meeting, the delegations agreed that there is still mutual interest for collaboration between the four countries and
that all intend to continue this working relationship called the Parliamentary Contactplan Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and Suriname.
The delegations also agreed that they will establish a work group that will be tasked with preparing the agenda points for the next Parliamentary Contactplan scheduled to take place in February 2024 in Aruba. These preparations will commence in November 2023. Topics to be discussed will concern matters beneficial to the Parliaments as institutions and also the countries in general.
Due to COVID-19 and other events, there has been no follow-up to the last Contactplan meeting that was held in February 2019 in Suriname. The topics discussed and agreed upon to cooperate on during that previous Contactplan meeting were topics of trade, eco-tourism, and agriculture.
