Camillo: SVG needs to speak up

St Vincent and the Grenadines and CARICOM at large have been too silent on major world issues unless the issues directly affect the region and this may soon change.{{more}}

This is according to Camillo Gonsalves, who has been named to become this country’s next Ambassador to the United Nations (UN).

In his first interview since the official announcement of his recommendation for the UN post by Foreign Affairs Minister Sir Louis Straker, Gonsalves said he is looking forward to lending St Vincent and the Grenadines’ voice to key world issues.

“I think in the past St Vincent and the Grenadines and many countries within CARICOM have been silent on issues unless these issues directly affect CARICOM and as a result we have lessened the impact of our own voice,” he said.

Gonsalves, who admitted that he would be more closely scrutinized than his predecessors in that UN post because he is the Prime Minister’s son, said that the UN is still the premier deliberatory body for dealing with the world’s problems.

Gonsalves’ recommendation for the post has come in for sharp criticism by some, but the young attorney said he relishes the challenge and is looking forward to doing the job.

Commenting on the debate that sometimes arises over this country’s close relationships with Cuba and Venezuela, Camillo said that this country’s foreign policy cannot be built on deference to the United States.

“We establish the importance and the supremacy of the United Nations, not the United States,” said Camillo, adding that while the US is a friend of this country, so too are other nations.

He said that St Vincent and the Grenadines’ position on Venezuela and Cuba is consistent with the rest of CARICOM and the world, by and large.

And what is the significance of the United Nations, is it just a lame duck, talk shop?

No, says Camillo.

“When things are done unilaterally without the United Nation’s sanction by some of the more powerful nations, they always end up having to run back to the United Nations for the problems to be solved or to be given the imprimatur or validity,” Camillo said.