At the political level, these matters are officially handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which answers to the Prime Minister.
Through the usage of its network of international bilateral relations, the country has been able to maintain an independent foreign policy.
Barbados' recent policy has been to focus and strengthen ties with nations that country feels will enhance its diplomacy or foreign trade.
[2] Barbados has placed an emphasis on a furtherance of relations with the nations of Africa where the majority of islanders have ancestral connection.
In 1965, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago established the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA).
By the following year many of the remaining English-speaking Caribbean states followed suit and also joined CARICOM by May 1974, bring it slowly to the 15 members it has today.
Barbados also is a member of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), established in 1970, with headquarters in Wildey, Saint Michael (Bridgetown).
In 1907, the Government of Canada opened a Trade Commissioner Service to the Caribbean region located in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Chile is accredited to Barbados from its embassy in Port of Spain, (Trinidad and Tobago) and maintains an honorary consulate in Bridgetown.
Shortly after Great Britain secured British Guiana from the Dutch, waves of migrants were encouraged to move and settle in Guyana.
[36][37] The Guyanese government has offered to put in place an economically favourable regime towards any Barbadians that wish to relocate to Guyana and contribute towards that nation's goals in agricultural investment.
[38] The announcement was made in the final days of the Owen Arthur administration by MP member Mia Motley.
Judge Stephen M. Schwebel, rendered after two years of international judicial proceedings, the landmark Barbados/Trinidad and Tobago Award, which resolved the maritime boundary delimitation (in the East, Central and West sectors) to satisfaction of both Parties and committed Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago to resolve their fisheries dispute by means of concluding a new Fisheries Agreement.
In May 1997, Prime Minister Owen Arthur hosted United States President Bill Clinton and 14 other Caribbean leaders during the first-ever U.S.-regional summit in Bridgetown, Barbados.
The summit strengthened the basis for regional cooperation on justice and counternarcotics issues, finance and development, and trade.
Japan is accredited to Barbados from its embassy in Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago) and an honorary consulate in Bridgetown.
France is represented in Barbados through its embassy in Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago) and an honorary consulate in Bridgetown.
[61][62][63] The two nations also discussed cultural exchanges and Russia working with Barbados' light oil and gas industry.
Both countries share common membership of the Caribbean Development Bank, the Commonwealth, the International Criminal Court, and the World Trade Organization, as well as the CARIFORUM–UK Economic Partnership Agreement.
Some of which include:[75] Barbados has a number of Double Taxation Agreements (DTAs) with a growing list of nations.
The country's former Governor-General, Dame Nita Barrow who served on the original Eminent Persons Group of 1985-1986 researched ways to bring about an end of apartheid in South Africa.
ACP • ACCP • ACS • Afreximbank • AOSIS • BIS • C • CAF-BDLAC(Associate) • Carib-Export • CARICOM • CARIFORUM • CARTAC • CCtJ • CDB • CDERA • CITEL • CTO • CXC • CFATF • CRNM • CROSQ • CSME • ECLAC • FAO • G33 • G77 • IADB • IDB • IAEA • IBRD • ICAO • ICCt • ICFTU • ICJ • ICRM • IDA • IFAD • IFC • IFRCS • ILO • IMF • IMO • Intelsat • Interpol • IOC • IOM • IMPACS • ISO • ITU • LAES • MACHC • MIGA • NAM • OAS • OPANAL • OPCW • PAPSS •PAHO • Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas • RSS • SIDS • UN • UNCTAD • UNESCO • UNHCR • UNIDO • UPU • WCO • WFTU • WHO • WIPO • WMO • UNWTO • WTO Disputes – international: Illicit drugs: ^These three form the SSS islands that with the ABC islands comprise the Dutch Caribbean, of which *the BES islands are not direct Kingdom constituents but subsumed with the country of the Netherlands.