The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is an International
Inter-governmental Organisation dedicated to regional integration in the
Eastern Caribbean.
OECS came into being on June 18th 1981, when seven Eastern Caribbean
countries signed the Treaty of Basseterre agreeing to cooperate and promote
unity and solidarity among the Members.
The Treaty of Basseterre was replaced in 2010 with a Revised Treaty of
Basseterre, creating an economic union which is an agreement between
countries where barriers to trade are reduced or removed for a single
market with a customs union.
OECS is now an eleven-member grouping comprising of the full Member States
of Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat,
Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
These members are part of the Economic Union and received the full benefits
of Economic Union like free movement of people and goods, with the British
Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Martinique and Guadeloupe as associate members of
OECS.
Relations with Türkiye
On 3 June 2016, a memorandum of cooperation was signed between the
Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and Türkiye, on the margin
of the 7th Summit of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) held in
Havana.
In 2017, Turkish Embassy in Santo Domingo was designated as the OECS
representative of Türkiye.
Türkiye aims to establish cooperation with OECD in the fields of disaster
management, support to SMEs, tourism, health, agriculture, environmental
management and climate change and cultural change.