 Her Excellency Lillian Chatterjee, Ambassador of Canada to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, OECS, presented her letters of credence to Dr. Dedekas Jules, Director-General of the OECS, at a virtual ceremony on Friday, May 21, 2021. The High Commissioner drew focus to the benefits of diplomatic relations between Canada and the OECS. The historical and people-to-people ties between Canada and OECS members run deep. And our shared cultural legacy of French and English colonialism profoundly shaped Canada and the Eastern Caribbean's development. A past that is thriving even today. Trade in sugar and saltfish have given way to other sectors. Canada is home. Canada has committed continued support to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and contributing to relief efforts of natural disasters in the region. Her Excellency Chatterjee commended the OECS for rallying to assist St. Vincent and the Grenadines after the eruption of the La Sufria Volcano. We too are responding and it will take all of us working together to address the immediate basic needs of those affected by the volcano and to recover. The crisis has exposed the fragility of global value chains and inequity of market access, including access to essential goods like PPE and vaccines. We must tackle these challenges as friends, partners and neighbors. We know the OECS is committed to our partnership. We are also actively looking for opportunities to engage more directly with the OECS as an institution. Director-General of the OECS, Dr. Didikus Jules noted the importance of the Canada-Caribbean Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program to the livelihoods of OECS nationals. And let me say parenthetically that since COVID and as well the volcanic eruption in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, this program has really proved the solidity of its benefits because we have had a couple hundred workers leave the OECS by special charter to engage in employment in Canada. A significant portion, I think over 80% of whom came from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. So indirectly Canada has made a huge contribution in a humanitarian way but in a way that also preserves human dignity by enabling persons from St. Vincent to go earn comparatively better wages than they would have earned even within the Caribbean at a time of such critical importance. Canada has also contributed to the development of the OECS region through several other initiatives including the provision of scholarship programs and providing technical support for the advancement of statistical systems in the region. Canada recently made a contribution to the Pan-American Health Organization in the sum of Canadian $50 million to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.