Nevis premier wants urgent talks on ‘Charlestown Accord’

By Ken Richards

BASSETERRE, St Kitts, (WINN) – Nevis is not getting the percentage shares that were agreed on in the Charlestown Accord, and there is an urgent need for talks to rectify that situation.

That’s the expressed position of premier Mark Brantley, the leader of the Concerned Citizens Movement and head of the Nevis Island administration. The accord was designed as the platform, the foundation for bringing the three-party Team Unity together, according to premier Brantley, [minister of foreign affairs and civil aviation in the Team Unity government].

“There have been issues that have bedeviled the relationship between St Kitts and Nevis over the years, and one of the fundamental issues was the sharing of resources. And the Charlestown Accord sought to address that, sought to ensure that the talents that were available in Nevis were unleashed for public and national development as well. We have made good progress, for example in the area of foreign affairs, the fact that Nevisians are now participating in diplomacy a role that they had been hitherto denied and I take great pride that as minister of foreign affairs.

“I have shepherded that particular aspect where Nevisians since 2015, and for the first time in the history of the country, are ambassadors and working in the diplomatic core at home and abroad. … And we have seen Nevis and Nevisians getting a better share of the national resources that flow from the Citizenship by Investment Program.”

However, premier Brantley says, what was promised in the Charlestown Accord has not been fully delivered, and he wants to see that happen.

“I, however, have been on record saying and I continue to say, that the full rigor of the Charlestown Accord has not yet been implemented and that is something that I have already telescoped to the prime minister has to be done and done early in this term that we have to give full rigor to the terms of the Charlestown Accord particularly as they relate to the sharing of resources from the Citizenship by Investment Program. Those resources continue to be lopsided in terms of the share that goes to our brothers and sisters in St Kitts compared to what comes to the island of Nevis.

“And so, while Nevis is getting more than it has ever received in the history of the country, we know that we are not getting what was agreed in terms of percentage shares and that now has to be a matter of urgent discussion and resolution between the NIA and the federal government. And I believe the prime minister has already signaled his willingness to sit and resolve those issues,” premier Brantley, speaking at his most recent press conference last Thursday, June 25, 2020.