Welcome to Saint Lucia

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Hon. Allen Chastanet
Prime Minister of Saint Lucia

I welcome you, on behalf of the Government and people of Saint Lucia, to the Saint Lucia portal of the Commonwealth of Nations Website.

Saint Lucia is part of the Windward Island chain, a sub-group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, located 21 miles south of its nearest neighbour, the French Department of Martinique, 24 miles north of St Vincent and 100 miles north-west of Barbados. Our 238-square-mile island possesses some of the finest natural harbours in the Caribbean, and is centrally located within easy reach of the rest of the region and North America. It was as a result of our strategic location that the French and British went to war repeatedly for possession of our island between the mid seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries, resulting in the island changing hands 14 times between the two colonial powers. This tug-of-war inspired one British historian to give Saint Lucia the sobriquet “Helen of the West Indies” comparing her to Helen of Troy, a mythical Greek character whose beauty mobilised an entire navy.

Although English is the official language, the struggle for possession between the British and the French has resulted in the uniqueness of our culture, which maintains a strong French influence as evident in the names of the majority of our communities, people and widely spoken French Creole language.

An active and committed member of the Commonwealth, Saint Lucia obtained her independence from the United Kingdom on 22 February 1979 and retains a stable Westminster-based parliamentary system with a lower house of elected members and a Senate made up of government and opposition appointees.

I encourage you to learn more about us from this website and then come and visit us for yourself to explore the tourism delights and investment opportunities available to all in Saint Lucia, the “Helen of the West Indies”.

The above message was provided by the then Prime Minister Stephenson King.

Saint Lucia

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