Your Excellencies, the war in Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza, the conflicts in the Yemen, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the threats across the Taiwan Strait, an empire’s designs on revolutionary Cuba and Venezuela, the violence and more in Haiti, and such like disruptions of the peace globally, all have specific origins and contexts. But they are all reflective, too, of a failure of multilateralism, a hamstrung United Nations framework, and a derogation from the fundamental precepts of the Charter of the United Nations. Large, powerful nations, singly, or in allied combinations, have a propensity to seek dominance. In this milieu, opportunistic or servile alliances emerge or persist as the particular circumstances admit. It all degenerates into a Manichean politics of the mad-house; hypocrisy, disinformation, and folly reign supreme.
Your Excellencies, in this context, arises the trope of the neo-liberal global order that the principal contradiction in today’s global political economy is between democracy and autocracy.
Still, all the self-serving shibboleths and gloss of this fictional construct will not wash away the unrepentant sins of the past or the cruel impositions of the present. The blinding truth is that the central contradiction in today’s political economy is not between democracy and autocracy. The main contradiction, has been and still is today, that which revolves around the fundamental material questions of “who gets what, when, where, and how”; it is centrally about the struggle or competition for ownership, control, and distribution of material resources which constitute the basis for regional or global hegemony. [In the variously proposed “New World Order” by rival hegemons, we from the periphery ask: What’s new? Which world? And who gives the orders?] Everywhere, more and more, the poor, the hungry, the marginalized, the disadvantaged are clamouring, and organizing, for a different and better future, not an unacceptable past, not a present without possibilities for upliftment; but for a future beyond unbounded elements.
Your Excellencies, sadly, in our region, we have been experiencing the lived reality that the imperial ghost of Monroe still stalks the marbled halls of the citadels of a neighboring great country of extraordinary possibilities to the detriment of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. No country in our hemisphere can reasonably be considered a security or other threat to this great nation. Yet, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and other Caribbean countries have been damaged collaterally, and directly, in significant material ways, by the weaponizing of the financial system and the unjust, unilateral, coercive sanctions against Venezuela and Cuba, which are a breach of international law. I am pleading with our friends for an amicable reset of these troubled relations in the interest of peace, mutual respect, justice, and prosperity. The international community continues, overwhelmingly, and rightly, to demand the end of the unilateral sanctions, the embargos, and unfair declarations about state sponsorship of terrorism, and more, made against Cuba.
Your Excellencies, on July 1, 2024, the Category 4 Hurricane Beryl battered St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Jamaica. Since the dawn of the 21st century this is the 12th significant natural disaster to have struck my country, excluding the volcanic eruptions of 2021. Hurricane Beryl has adversely affected one-fifth of our population and has caused economic damage amounting to one-third of our country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The relief, recovery, and reconstruction processes are underway. On behalf of the government and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, I thank all countries and organisations, including the United Nations, that have come to our aid in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane. Unfortunately, for the recovery and rebuilding processes, we are essentially on our own; we have had to seek significant loans to rebuild our physical infrastructure and 5,000 houses, to provide income support for affected persons, and to mobilise production support for the agricultural, fishing, and tourism industries. I am appealing to the international community, our dear friends, to assist us not with further burdensome loans, but with requisite grants. The recovery and reconstruction after every natural disaster increase sharply our debt burden; countries like St. Vincent and the Grenadines have contributed little or nothing to global warming and man-made climate change, yet we suffer largely alone on the frontlines. This cannot be fair; it cannot be just. Do we have to choose DEATH or DEBT?
Your Excellencies, the Caribbean Community, the African Union, the Community of States of Latin America and the Caribbean, their diasporas and all fair-minded persons globally have been insisting that the European nations responsible for native genocide and the enslavement of African bodies pay reparations for the consequential legacy of underdevelopment. This issue of transformative reparatory justice will not go away, until it is addressed appropriately. [In this context, too, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines supports the initiative of Colombia, Brazil and South Africa for a UNGA Resolution towards a second International Decade for People of African Descent with Dignity and Transformative Reparations.]
Your Excellencies, the suffering and pain of the Haitian people continue to weigh heavily on the consciences of our Caribbean. Through the efforts of the Haitian people, in tandem with the regional and international communities, especially CARICOM, the USA, Canada, and Kenya, a measure of progress has been made on some fronts, but immense challenges remain in the humanitarian, security, political, and economic spheres. The building of a free, democratic, peaceful, and prosperous Haiti demands commitment and concerted action from all relevant stakeholders in pursuance of solutions devised by Haitians and led by Haitians. Haiti fatigue is not an option for the international community.
Your Excellencies, in our Caribbean there is a growing challenge of violent crime involving the combustible mix of imported guns and bullets, illegally exported marijuana, and the trafficking of cocaine from South America. It is evident that this challenge demands much closer operational cooperation between all the countries concerned in the Caribbean, North America, South America and Europe.
In the Middle East, the collective punishment meted against the Palestinians in Gaza and the continued illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, including in the West Bank, amidst accompanying state terror, by an Israeli regime, in total defiance of international law, is utterly unacceptable. Surely, despite the complexities of the problems-at-hand, this United Nations, especially the Security Council, ought to summon the courage and the will to stop the carnage and facilitate a lasting peace and security.
Your Excellencies, in the Far East, the prospect of a disruption of the tenuous peace across the Taiwan Strait is alarming. The quest for hegemony and the denial of a people’s inalienable right to self-determination are wrong in the east as it is the west; bullying is objectionable in the west as it is in the east; unilateral coercive action by a big power in the east are contrary to international law as it is surely in the west.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines continues to urge that Taiwan be allowed to participate fully in the specialized agencies of the United Nations, including those pertaining to health, air and sea transport, climate change, disaster preparedness, and global policy.
Your Excellencies, it appears that there have been recently some positive movements in the long quest to effect a judicious and just reform of the United Nations Security Council. It is evident to all reasonable persons that reform of this body is long overdue. As the Chair of the L69 Group, St Vincent and the Grenadines will continue its advocacy for an inclusive, more accountable, effective, representative, and relevant Security Council.
Excellencies, we know that a better world is possible. On the United Nations rests our hope for a better world of peace, justice, security, and prosperity. Let us all so act in accord with our responsibilities, obligations, and means!
Let us not desecrate our future!
