NASSAU, The Bahamas -- Prime
Minister the Rt. Hon. Perry Gladstone Christie will be in attendance
on Friday, December
21, 2012, at the re-installation of a monument plaque
commemorating the 50th anniversary of United States President
John F. Kennedy’s visit to The Bahamas.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration the Hon.
Fred Mitchell and US Embassy officials including John Dinkleman, Charge
D’Affaires will also be in attendance.
The Bahamas is remembered for being the place on
December 22, 1962, where the
Nassau Agreement was concluded.
United States President John F. Kennedy and British Minister Harold
Macmillan negotiated the treaty over three days.
After the talks, the leaders of the two countries
announced the formation of a multilateral North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
(NATO) nuclear force.
The agreement meant that the
U.S. would sell Polaris missiles to the U
nited Kingdom. Polaris was a two-stage solid-fuelled
rocket system, designed to be fired underwater from a submarine. It
carried a one half megaton nuclear warhead with a speed reaching as
much as 17,500 mph (28,160 kph).
The British Government would construct the submarines
and develop warheads for Polaris with technical support from the U.S.
and the United Kingdom was to lease the Americans a nuclear submarine
base in the Holy Loch, near Glasgow.
At the end of the summit, the two leaders issued
a joint statement.
In it, Prime Minister Macmillan made it clear that
Polaris missiles would be used for the international defence of NATO
countries, except where Britain’s “supreme national interests
are at stake”.
The installation is being
organised by The Bahamas
’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the U.S. Embassy.
The original site of the monument, Blake Road and West Bay Street along
with the monument were refurbished where this ceremony will be re-enacted.
