Does St. Kitts and Nevis maintain the important thing to regional stability?
The Bible tells us at Isaiah 11:6 that “slightly little one shall lead them”. This straightforward but profound assertion evokes hope and suggests {that a} recent perspective can result in higher outcomes. I exploit this passage of Holy Writ to underscore that St. Kitts and Nevis is the smallest Nation within the Caribbean. Regardless of its dimension nevertheless, it has by coincidence of rotation assumed the chair of the Council for International and Group Relations (COFCOR) of the Caribbean Group (CARICOM) at its twenty eighth assembly held in Could 2025 and shall on January 1st, 2026 assume the Chair of the Caribbean Group (CARICOM). It means due to this fact that the smallest nation within the Caribbean will lead each COFCOR and CARICOM on the most tumultuous time that the area has seen in a long time.
It’s no secret that the Caribbean finds itself at an inflection level. Geographically, we’re the third border to the good United States of America. Philosophically, we’ve got lengthy trumpeted our area as a Zone of Peace. Diplomatically, we’ve got because the Chilly Conflict and past been pressured to navigate an more and more hostile world atmosphere which supplies no quarter to small island States.
Nature teaches us in lots of respects that the small and susceptible improve their possibilities of survival by unifying and performing as one. This for my part was and continues to be the genius of CARICOM. These founding fathers who set this area upon a path to better unity of function acknowledged that we should as minnows navigate a worldwide ocean of sharks. They acknowledged that to take action, we should act with unison of function and conviction. We should converse and act with one voice and resist the temptation to interact alone.
As I write, the USA has amassed an armada within the south Caribbean Sea. The acknowledged cause is to struggle drug trafficking emanating from Venezuela. Others see it as having the deeper function of regime change in Venezuela. Venezuela in fact is of world significance due to the huge oil deposits on which it sits. The US has amassed this important army power with the open help of our Caribbean sister Trinidad and Tobago, a founding member of CARICOM. Our different sister Grenada has been requested to have radar installations on its territory. It seems that these engagements have been fully bilateral with little regard for CARICOM or a regional place. Claims of sovereignty and placing nationwide pursuits first have resulted in regional leaders shouting at one another throughout the Caribbean Sea. CARICOM, we are actually being informed, is dysfunctional and an unreliable associate. Our a lot touted Zone of Peace is now on the brink of conflict.
It’s at this inflection level for our Caribbean civilization that St. Kitts and Nevis assumes the mantle of regional management. What then should we do? We can’t merely sit on the sidelines and wring our palms in frustration. We should act and act collectively. We should maintain pricey the inalienable fact that the Caribbean civilization can’t afford the posh of disunity.
Underneath the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, coordination of international coverage is a key goal of CARICOM. Article 6 speaks to the “enhanced coordination of Member States’ international and international financial insurance policies.” That coordination is left to COFCOR to navigate. I due to this fact posit the next factors for consideration:
* Particular person members of CARICOM ought to subordinate their nationwide pursuits in partaking on the problem of Venezuela to the strategic regional curiosity of CARICOM as a complete. The Caribbean ought to interact with third get together States en bloc by means of CARICOM in step with Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
* The area ought to maintain quick to the place that we’re a Zone of Peace and resist turning into one other theatre for world battle and its attendant human struggling
* Caribbean leaders should present restraint in publicly attacking one another. As one Caribbean household, allow us to resist the bottom temptation to air soiled laundry publicly. Our exterior posture should all the time be one among unity.
* We should deploy the elder statesmen of the Area (like former Prime Minister of Jamaica PJ Patterson, former Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Dr. Ralph Gonsalves and former Prime Minister of St. Lucia Dr. Kenny Anthony) to behave as CARICOM emissaries to Venezuela to barter a peaceable decision to present tensions inside Venezuela
* CARICOM ought to leverage relationships with Latin America together with these by means of the 35 member Group of American States (OAS) at the moment led by a distinguished son of CARICOM and the 33 member Group of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to hunt a wider regional consensus on Venezuela and our area as a Zone of Peace.
* CARICOM envoys to Venezuela ought to be guided by the Montevideo Mechanism. This framework was proposed in Montevideo, Uruguay on 6 February 2019 by the governments of Mexico, Uruguay and CARICOM and envisions a 4‑section course of designed to assist facilitate a peaceable, negotiated answer to Venezuela’s political disaster.
* CARICOM ought to interact concurrently with the USA on de-escalating tensions within the area and will invite the United Nations, the European Union and Canada to help within the de-escalation. The USA needs assurances of its nationwide safety and what higher option to safe the USA than to have dependable associates and a Zone of Peace as its third border?
* The fiftieth Common Assembly of CARICOM Heads of Authorities scheduled for 25-Twenty seventh February, 2026 in Basseterre, St. Kitts ought to be convened earlier given the gravity and urgency of the state of affairs within the south Caribbean Sea.
Given the present army build-up within the Caribbean, time is of absolutely the essence. Our area is on the brink and peace calls for dedicated and steadfast diplomacy. I want the management of St. Kitts and Nevis each success at this most tough time. This era within the historical past of our Caribbean civilization will outline not solely St. Kitts and Nevis’ capability for management however can even outline management in our wider Caribbean area.
Honourable Mark Brantley,
Premier of Nevis
Chief of the Opposition,
Associated
