Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St Vincent, asserts that his government has demonstrated audacity and guidance throughout a difficult period for the island nation.
Speaking in parliament on December 19, Gonsalves stated that there is a chasm in the fight for sustainable development, job creation, poverty reduction, and equity.
Gonsalves warned opposition members that this chasm cannot be spanned in baby stages, and he informed citizens that the opposition wants to do so, but that doing so will cause citizens to plunge below a spreading canyon.
“You cannot cross that chasm in baby steps. If you do, you will fall inevitably beneath and below the widening gorge. That is where the NDP wants to take the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines.”.
“Below and beneath the widening gorge with baby steps, without any framework, without any philosophy, stuffed with opportunism and streams of consciousness. Empty thinking with illusions and delusions”, he told parliament.
According to Gonsalves, when St Vincent was elected president pro tempore of CELAC, the NDP (opposition party) argued it was a waste of time.
“They said we’re going with that. If I were not prime minister in St Vincent and the Grenadines, pro tempore president of CELAC, you think it’d have been easy to have peace between Venezuela and Guyana?”?
“Lots of countries play their roles. But St Vincent and the Grenadines. As the pro tempore president of CELAC, we played a significant role. The young children understand this, and this provides inspiration for them to draw out the best in them”, Gonsalves said.
Gonsalves told parliament that when young boys and girls in elementary and secondary school look up St Vincent and the Grenadines on the internet, it sparks in them a desire to harness their own capabilities and skills in order to rise further.
The hostility between Venezuela and Guyana has cooled slightly since the December 14 meeting. According to numerous political observers, the UK’s decision to send a military ship to Guyana will further exacerbate tensions.
Britain says the vessel dispatched to Guyana is a display of diplomatic and military solidarity for the Commonwealth country, which is embroiled in a territory dispute with Venezuela.
HMS Trent, described by the government as a “defence diplomacy” vessel, will participate in joint drills with Guyana after Christmas.
