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The foreign relations of the Cayman Islands are largely managed from the United Kingdom, as the islands remains one of 14 overseas territories under British jurisdiction and sovereignty. However, the Government of the Cayman Islands have autonomy and often resolves important issues with foreign governments alone, without intervention from Britain. Although in its early days, the Cayman Islands' most important relationships were with Britain and Jamaica, in recent years, this has shifted, and they now rely more so on the United States and Canada.
Though the Cayman Islands are involved in no major international disputes, they have come under some criticism due to the use of their territory for narcotics trafficking and money laundering. In an attempt to address this, the Government entered into the Narcotics Agreement of 1984 and the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty of 1986 with the United States, in order to reduce the use of their facilities associated with these activities. In more recent years, they have stepped up the fight against money laundering, by limiting banking secrecy, introducing requirements for customer identification and record keeping, and requiring banks to cooperate with foreign investigators.
Due to their status as an overseas territory of the UK, the Cayman Islands have no representation either on the United Nations, or in most other international organizations. However, the Cayman Islands still participates in some international organisations, being a full member of the Central Development Bank and International Olympic Committee, an associate member of Caricom and UNESCO, and a member of a subbureau of Interpol.
Bilateral relations
India
Main article: Cayman Islands–India relationsUnited States
Main article: Cayman Islands–United States relationsReferences
See also
| Foreign relations of the Caribbean | |||||
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| N.B.: Territories in italics are parts of transregional sovereign states or non-sovereign dependencies.
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. Physiographically, these continental islands are not part of the volcanic Windward Islands arc, although sometimes grouped with them culturally and politically. Disputed territories administered by Guyana. Disputed territories administered by Colombia. Bermuda is an isolated North Atlantic oceanic island, physiographically not part of the Lucayan Archipelago, Antilles, Caribbean Sea nor North American continental nor South American continental islands. It is grouped with the Northern American region, but occasionally also with the Caribbean region culturally. | |||||
| Foreign relations in the Americas | |
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| Sovereign states |
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| Dependencies and territories |
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