Wednesday, October 04, 2006

K3 (Bonaire, Saba, & St. Eustatius) Continue Discussions for Direct Ties with the Netherlands

Discussions continue today, Wednesday, October 4, 2006, with the Dutch delegation headed by Minister of Administrative Reform and Kingdom Relations, Atzo Nicolai, for direct ties to the Netherlands for the small islands of Bonaire, Saba, and St. Eustatius.  Parties are fine-tuning the agenda and preparing a document for next week’s mini-summit in The Hague. 

These islands, to which the Netherlands is already referring as the K3, the K standing for Klein ("small" in Dutch), are determined not to wait for the other two islands in the Netherlands Antilles, Curaçao and St. Maarten, to work out their desired status to become countries within the Kingdom, and are quickly moving forward to establish ties with Holland.  Bonaire is going for a municipality status, with special circumstances and adapted to the local situation, what they call “sui generis.” Bonaire would rather not speak about integration or association.

For additional information, click here. (Source:  Caribbean Press Releases)