Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)
Map of the Eastern Caribbean showing OECS member states (dark green) and associate member states (light green).
Secretariat	Morne Fortune, Castries  Saint Lucia
Working language	English French
Membership	7 states  Antigua and Barbuda  Dominica  Grenada  Montserrat  Saint Kitts and Nevis  Saint Lucia  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 3 observers  Anguilla  British Virgin Islands  Martinique
Leaders
• Chairman	Roosevelt Skerrit
• Director General	Didacus Jules
Establishment
• Treaty of Basseterre	18 June 1981
Area
• Total	4,271 km2 (1,649 sq mi)
Population
• 2015 estimate	1,049,374
• Density	245.7/km2 (636.4/sq mi)
Currency	3 currencies  (XCD)  Dollar  (USD)  US Dollar  (EUR)  Euro
Time zone	OECS (UTC-4)
Internet TLD	10 TLDs  .ai  .ag  .vg  .dm  .gd  .mq  .ms  .kn  .lc  .vc
Website www.oecs.org

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), created in 1981, is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to economic harmonisation and integration, protection of human and legal rights, and the encouragement of good governance between countries and dependencies in the Lesser Antilles in the Eastern Caribbean. It also performs the role of spreading responsibility and liability in the event of natural disaster, such as a hurricane.

The main organ of the OECS, the Secretariat, is based in the capital city of Castries, Saint Lucia.

The OECS was created on 18 June 1981, with the Treaty of Basseterre, which was named after the capital city of St. Kitts and Nevis. The OECS is the successor of the Leewards Islands' political organisation known as the West Indies Associated States (WISA).

One prominent aspect of the modern day OECS economic bloc has been the accelerated pace of trans-national integration among its member states.

All of the members-states of the OECS (except for Martinique) are either Full or Associate members of the Caribbean Community and were among the second batch of countries that joined the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). Martinique is currently negotiating to become an associate member of the Caribbean Community as well.

The OECS currently has ten members, spread across the Eastern Caribbean. Together, they form a near-continuous archipelago across the Leeward Islands and Windward Islands.

The two most geographically isolated members, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands, have only associate membership of the organisation. As a result, diplomatic missions of the OECS do not represent these two states. Nor do OECS diplomatic missions represent Martinique, the third associate member. For the purposes of further discussing the membership, they are treated as equals of the full members.