The government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has decided who will be its ambassador to Taiwan when an embassy is opened there in the next few weeks.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said on radio, on Thursday, that the ambassador is a woman, but stopped short of naming the person.
He said he would leave that to the Minster of Foreign Affairs, Sir Louis Straker to announce.
iWitness News was reliably informed that the new diplomat is a career educator who retired at the helm of an academic institution recently.
Gonsalves said that in early August he will lead a delegation to Taiwan to hold further discussions with President Tsai Ing-wen, who is slated to make an official visit to Kingstown next Tuesday.
He said that Kingstown will open its embassy in Taipei during his visit there.
“We have decided on who is going to be the ambassador, who is going to be the first one and who is the minister counsellor, but I will let the Minister of Foreign Affairs announce those,” the prime minister said.
“But good people have been chosen as always, we try — we have to go through the process of having the formal appointments take place,” he said.
The prime minister said he wants the ambassador-designate to accompany him on the visit to Taiwan next month.
“I intend to do so in the first week or so in August and it’s a woman. I don’t know whether she would go and stay or whether she would go and come back and go with the minister counsellor,” he said.
“We, naturally, will have to hire, over there, somebody who is from Taiwan to be the secretary and a driver for the vehicle and so on as you do in any country where you go. But the professional diplomatic staff will come from here.”
He said that SVG’s relationship with Taiwan is mature.
Kingstown and Taipei have maintained diplomatic links since 1981
“We have a number of students over there. I mean [Vincentian] Peggy Carr, who is a remarkable woman, who lives there, was doing essentially consular work free.
“And I am sure she will help the new embassy in her own private capacity, ‘cause she is a selfless individual but she had her own — she is doing her own thing; a good woman,” he said of Carr, a media professional, who has been living in Taiwan for over a decade.
Is this proposed foreign trip to Taiwan by Gonsalves to be yet another foreign excursion junket at the poor and suffering SVG’s taxpayers’ expense?
After all, if the Taiwanese President is coming here, surely, if what Ralph Gonsalves has to discuss with her is so pressing, can he not discuss those things with her when she is visiting us here and thus spare our poor country the expense of him having to visit her in Taiwan so soon after she had visited SVG.
Indeed, is Ralph Gonsalves job as Prime Minister of SVG really so tediously boring, with him having very little to do here, that he needs to go to foreign climes ever so often, in order to escape the dullness and boredom of his administration simply trying to create an environment for meaningful job creation for our growing army of out of work people?
I am very much disappointed that the government will appoint a retired person for this position.an again it is not some one you can say is not fit for the job.she is more than distinguish and competent for that job.and l do not believe that there is eny one more competent than she is.but she already has her time to surve this country and did the best and is one of this country best pobblic surveant she didn’t gave her self the job the government did.so l am not been objective to her.l just think that some one much younger should have been given the opportunity were they would of gain access to international affairs in a practical way.to better surve this country in it’s diplomatic policy.for a much longer time.so they should of look at it in that way.and should have let her be an advisor to the government and matter dealing with education.so l will still congratulate you an all the best to you and your family.and l know it’s going to be another job well done.MAY GOD BE WITH YOUR FAMILY.
I am totally in agreement with the sentiments expressed by the two contributors to the discussion. Let us not forget that the former chief of police who is now retirement heads the Argyle International Airport security blanket. Add another to the list of retirees who have been rewarded either though patronage or by party affiliation. Indeed politics speak in St Vincent.
What you need to understand Mr MAC is that there is always a job on offer for one of the inner crew and never any for our army of out of work population here in SVG.
So, let us give the leader of our governing administration his proper title for once which is; Gonsalves the first of SVG, the frequent flyer and collector of Air miles, the jobs destroyer and purveyor of poverty at home, friend of grubby dictators worldwide and conquer of both the British and American Empires.
Long may he reign over us because of our inherited enduring ignorance and utter folly!