BRIDGETOWN, Barbados

(CMC):

A former director general of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Monday called on the member states of the sub-regional grouping to rethink their current political and economic status in order to survive in a changing global environment.

Professor Vaughan Lewis, a senior lecturer in international relations at the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies told the Caribbean media Corporation that the nine- member grouping must urgently move out of its comfort zone and find new partners and arrangements if it is to survive in the global environment.

Lewis, a former St Lucia prime minister said that it is becoming increasingly clear that the eastern Caribbean islands could no longer stand on their own in light of the economic, security and transportation challenges facing them.

Lewis, along with Trinidad and Tobago diplomat Dr Cuthbert Joseph, have been mandated by the governments of St Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago to prepare a study on a possible political union involving these countries.