Analysis by Rickey Singh

AT the time of writing this column no official statement was released on Thursday’s meeting of CARICOM Foreign Ministers at United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York. They were scheduled to review challenges
and problems facing this region that require collective resolution during the current session of the UN General Assembly.
Their meeting was preceded by a two-day “Climate Change Summit” arranged by UN Secretary General, Ban-Ki-Moon against the backdrop of the recent Small Islands States (SIDS) Conference in Samoa.
If ever there was a period in the 41-year history of the now 15-member regional economic integration movement that time is now. And
neither size nor geographical location should stand in the way of a vigorous, holistic approach in pursuit of policies and programmes often piously announced by Heads of Government and/or  the Community Secretariat in Guyana.
THE ISSUES: Among issues and concerns expected to be addressed by the Foreign Ministers were the financing and arming of international terrorism; safeguarding of political sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Also, the undue pressures from wealthy and powerful aid donor nations; the dangers posed by the scourge of spreading criminality that’s linked to the trade in illegal guns and drugs. And most decidedly also, the
challenges posed by the phenomenon of climate change with serious threats to vulnerable regions like our own.

These problems require, and deserve, collective ACTION, as distinct from the multiplicity of eloquent repetitious rhetoric. Whatever
else our Heads of Government or their Foreign Ministers may differ over, they would appreciate that there is really no sensible alternative to acting imaginatively TOGETHER in addressing the challenges of climate change via
co-ordinated approaches that could stimulate similar initiatives by other small and vulnerable regions.

Missed opportunity
Tuesday’s start of addresses by Heads of State/Government for the UN Climate Change Summit seemed a good opportunity for a collective Statement/Declaration by CARICOM. More so since the new Prime Minister of
Antigua and  Barbuda, Mr. Gaston Browne was listed among early speakers and, more importantly, he is the current Chairman of the Community.
Alas, given a now institutionalised pattern of Heads of State/Government lining up to make their separate addresses for the ‘show
time’ moment in full glare of the international media, no such approach was embraced. Hence, Mr. Browne was left to speak only as Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda.
No suggestion is being made here to deny sovereign rights to any Head of State/Government from making a personal direct personal statement on behalf of his/her government at the UN-or whatever the forum or occasion. Rather to give consideration to changing the modalities that could avoid,
for instance, the  example of Prime Minister Browne being left to deliver his UN Climate Change address last Tuesday, simply on behalf of his own country, when he could well have been requested to also do so as current
chairman of CARICOM. This would have been consistent with the vaunted slogan
of “One Community, One People.”
Surely those involved in arrangements for Thursday’s special meeting of CARICOM Foreign Ministers would have been aware that Prime Minister Browne was listed to address the start of the UN’s Climate Change Summit.
Given the official rhetoric among our political leaders PM Browne could easily have been presented with an approved brief to reflect a collective CARICOM position, as distinct from having to restrict his address on behalf of his own .
Yet, he spoke bravely in observing “that while small island states like ours continue to pay a high price from the consequences of climate change, “we contribute the very least to the conditions that cause climate change.”
It is disappointing and painful to note in today’s column, that for all their eloquent, arresting talk prior to, during and after the recently
concluded UN-organised SIDS Conference in Samoa, there should have been NO single statement reflecting a collective CARICOM position head of last week’s UN Climate Change Summit in New York.
It is, therefore, relevant to ask of member governments of CARICOM, as well as the increasingly influential captains of this region’s expanding private sector, what efforts would be made, together, to sensitise the citizens of
our Community to at least the core features of a very lengthy, complex document released at the end of the Samoa conference, titled : “SIDS
Accelerated Models for Action (The Samoa Pathway”?
For now, we may have to be content with at least an informed statement (by
this weekend?) on some of the priorities  to be pursued, together, on the range of important issues arising from the Community’s Foreign Ministers meeting-ahead of scheduled individual addresses by Heads of
State/Government for the current new session of the UN General Assembly.