St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) will, on Sunday, Nov. 1, assume the presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for one month, ending Nov. 30.
This is SVG’s first and only presidency during the country’s stint on the council and forms part of the SVG’s responsibility as a non-permanent member.
SVG presidency aims to address contemporary challenges, including pandemics, environmental challenges, climate change and its security consequences and the nexus between development and peace and security, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.
Key events for the month of November include a press briefing by Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves at 1 p.m. The briefing will be streamed live from online on UNTV and the Facebook pages of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Mission of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Nations, and will be aired on the Eye on Government programme hosted by the Agency for Public Information.
On Nov.3, at 8:30 a.m. there will be the Security Council Virtual Open Debate under the agenda theme “Peace-building and Sustainable Peace: Contemporary Drivers of Conflict and Insecurity”. Gonsalves will chair this high-level virtual open debate. The event will be streamed and broadcast on the same platforms as the press conference.
On Nov. 4 there will be a meeting of the police commissioners of the UN Peacekeeping Missions; intended to highlight issues affecting Haiti while the event, Peace and security in Africa will be held on Nov. 16.
SVG assumed its position as a non-permanent member of the UNSC on Jan. 2, 2020 and will remain a member for two years, culminating on Dec. 31, 2021.
It is good for SVG to hold the presidency of the United Nations Security Council. It gives SVG prestige in the world and Vincentians can be proud. However, being on the Council can’t provide food for hungry Vincentians. Being on the Council does not reduce poverty in SVG. Being on the Council does not reduce unemployment for VIncentians. Being on the UN Security Council does not help us with heath care. Does not repair our roads. Does not care for our young people and give them hope for the future.
These are the bread and butter issues of Vincentians. These are the things Vincentians want solutions to in their country.
Would it be better to focus on the issues above rather than focus on being on the UN Security, as useful as it is?
This is the Gonsalves government “taking SVG higher”, as many out of work Vincentians struggle to put food on the table! What twisted and misplaced obligations eh by a selfish family administration. This Man Ralph Gonsalves was first elected to create prosperity in impoverished SVG, not to save the world from itself!
So once again one asks, how does this temporary UN seat feed Vincentians or improve our crumbling state? What it does however, is to have Ralph Gonsalves pursue the interest not of Vincentians but rather, those interest of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua and Venezuela while Vincentians are left to suck salt. What a shame.
Does this deluded and misguided individual really think that he can thwart the foreign policy interest of the USA by his two-year adventurism, all at the expense of the Vincentian people? If he does, he is in for a very rude awakening.
“United States officials revealed on Thursday they had seized Iranian missiles bound for Yemen and sold 1.1 million barrels of previously-seized Iranian oil bound for Venezuela.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/10/29/us-sanctions-chinese-singaporean-firms-over-iran-oil-dealings
Further, the US administration have made it clear that they will take every step to stop Iran creating a new missile crisis in Venezuela by seizing any such arm shipment enroot and if any weapons should ever be smuggled through, they will be destroyed in country.
It is sure time for wise Vincentians to realise that we need a head of state who will put the well- being of all Vincentians first, and not the narrow interest of one extended family and their friends.
We are on the council because Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and several other nasty regimes paid into the fund and supported SVGs election. The dirty need a voice, someone to talk down the nastiness they hand out to their people and SVG provide just that. Nothing for Vincentians to be proud of at all, in fact exactly the opposite. SVG are as responsible for what these countries do to their citizens as if SVG did it themselves.
SVG is responsible for what is happening in Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and all those other countries who SVG protect against sanctions. The proof is in SVGs voting record, voting in support of all those rubbish regimes or abstaining, whatever best suits the situation.