Trinbago elected again to UN Security Council

With a total of 181 votes, Trinidad and Tobago has been elected to the Security Council of the United Nations. This is a proud moment for the two-island nation and for its Prime Minister Kamla Persad- Bissessar, and comes at a most interesting time.

Since Persad- Bissessar resumed the prime ministerial position after her party romped to power over the People’s National Movement in general elections, she has taken some rather aggressive postures towards the rest of CARICOM. This got worse after the United States amplified its aggression toward the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which the majority of CARICOM States criticized.

The declaration of the Caribbean region as a Zone of Peace was particularly bothersome to the Trinbago prime minister who disagreed, refusing to understand the concept. She took the position that the crime situation in her country nullified that declaration.

Then we saw her becoming the US’ chief whip in the region for that hegemon’s attacks on Venezuela. She seemed to totally agree with the US’ characterization of Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro, as a ‘narco terrorist’. And when the US military began blowing fishing boats out of Caribbean waters she urged the aggressors to “Kill them all”. Coming from a lawyer at the head of government it was most unfortunate.

It was a sad position being adopted by Trinidad and Tobago, one of the original signatories to the Treaty of Chaguaramas creating CARICOM in 1973. We then saw Port of Spain welcoming a US naval craft into port as the psychological warfare was stepped up against the Venezuela government. And after the stand-off between the US and Grenada over the request to install radar equipment in that nation, we saw Trinidad and Tobago welcoming the installation of that radar in Tobago which was widely seen as preparation for an attack on Venezuela.

Trinidad and Tobago’s campaign toward their eventual election to the important Security Council of the United Nations, must have begun prior to the assumption of the government led by current Perdad Bissesar. Such campaigns usually take years, but given the importance to us in this Region it was expected that the CARICOM Member States would support a member of the grouping.

That is how it worked when Guyana served from 2024-2026 and how it functioned when St Vincent and the Grenadines campaigned and was elected to the non-permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council from 2020 to 2022.

With Trinidad and Tobago now once more elected to the Security Council it comes, ironically more like a win for the hawkish Donald Trump Administration in the White House than it is for CARICOM Member States. This is because of the positions the Persad- Bissesar government has been taking on issues vis- a- vis the rest of the region. Only recently, we saw her government, along with Guyana breaking with the rest of the regional body on the question of the US’ continued coercive measures on Cuba.

This is the third time that Trinidad and Tobago has been elected to the UN Security Council. That Caribbean nation served its First Term from 1985 -1987 with George Chambers as Prime Minister, and from 2002-2004 under Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

Even though Prime Minister Kamala Persad- Bissessar has not been particularly warm in her government’s relations with the rest of CARICOM, for the Region it is still an issue to be proud of that a member would occupy this important seat. Sadly, it does not guarantee that the positions of the Region would best be served though, given her coziness and subservient attitude to the bellicose Donald Trump administration.