NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (February 08, 2013) — Canada’s High Commissioner to St. Kitts and Nevis His Excellency Mr. Richard Hanley, promised his country’s continued support for Nevis and St. Kitts and Nevis when he paid a courtesy call on the island’s Premier Hon. Vance Amory on February 06, 2013 at Bath Hotel.

The Ambassador expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to visit and dialogue with the Premier.  He had earlier presented his credentials to Government officials in St. Kitts during a three day visit to the Federation from February 05-07, 2013.

“Canada and St. Kitts and Nevis have a long-standing relationship. We have been good friends over the years. We have economic ties we have family ties and we have academic exchanges and great people to people engagement.

“We look forward to our continued productive relationship going forward. We will work together as friends to create a more peaceful and prosperous region. I would like to thank you very much for the warm welcome I have received today and look forward to working with you and in the years ahead,” he said.

Mr. Amory thanked the Ambassador for gracing Nevis with his presence and for their brief discussions. He said Canada and St. Kitts and Nevis had shared a common heritage as past colonial subjects and over the years Nevis had benefited from their good relations.

The Premier also registered his personal gratitude as a benefactor of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and also that of Nevis.

“I want to assure you Sir, that we appreciate your country’s contributions over the years. One of our schools (St. Thomas Primary School) was built by your country through CIDA and as I like to say, I myself am a product of support from your country through a CIDA scholarship…

“I want to thank you and thank your country for being so good and gracious to Nevis and I trust that we shall be able to continue our relationship. As we discussed, we will look at little projects whether it’s in security or in training which you might be able to do for us even though you are doing a lot of your work through the RSS [Regional Security System] and through the OAS [Organization of American States] and other international institutions. I want to thank you for your presence and for your consideration of anything which we might want to bring to you for your funding or for your attention,” he said.

Meantime, while on Nevis the Canadian Ambassador also visited with the Federal Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Premier of Nevis Hon. Mark Brantley. He spoke to the relationship that both countries shared.

“St. Kitts and Nevis have always enjoyed an excellent relationship with Canada and Canadians. We rely on Canada heavily in terms of our tourists; we also visit Canada quite regularly. We have lots of friends and family that live especially in places like Toronto and it is an absolute pleasure to welcome you to our shores.

“We trust and hope that your stay here will be enjoyable and we look forward to many, many more visits from you to this part of the Caribbean as you fulfil your mandate to develop good relations throughout the region particularly the Eastern Caribbean with Canada,” he said.

The Commissioner in response explained that Canada hoped to continue the warm relations and to build on the political, economic and cultural ties they already shared in the Region, the people to people engagement to work together, promote economic prosperity, improve security in the Region and to promote people to people ties and engagement going forward.