Gaston Browne urges stronger Commonwealth collaboration

Gail Alexan­der

In­com­ing Com­mon­wealth chair­man and Gas­ton Browne has called for clos­er co­op­er­a­tion among mid­dle and small na­tions, say­ing a stronger al­liance is need­ed as glob­al pow­er struc­tures shift.

The Prime Min­is­ter of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da made the call in an opin­ion ar­ti­cle pub­lished in The Tele­graph on Mon­day. He said the Com­mon­wealth of Na­tions could serve as the foun­da­tion for an al­liance of mid­dle pow­ers pro­posed by Mark Car­ney, the Prime Min­is­ter of Cana­da.

“In a world of shift­ing glob­al pow­er struc­tures, there is an ob­vi­ous need for a coali­tion of com­pat­i­ble mid­dle and small na­tions to­geth­er mag­ni­fy­ing their in­flu­ence glob­al­ly,” Browne wrote.

“In­deed, if in the world to­day there were not such a group of like-mind­ed, pre­dom­i­nant­ly Eng­lish-speak­ing, free-trade-sup­port­ing, rules-based na­tions, one would need to be cre­at­ed. For­tu­nate­ly, with the Com­mon­wealth, we al­ready have one. The ques­tion now is what we do with it.”

Browne raised the is­sue af­ter queries from Guardian Me­dia about the re­cent Amer­i­c­as Counter Car­tel Con­fer­ence, which was at­tend­ed by four CARI­COM states, in­clud­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go. Trinidad and To­ba­go and Guyana were lat­er among 12 coun­tries that signed on to the ACC coali­tion.

An­tigua and Bar­bu­da will host the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing 2026 from No­vem­ber 1 to 4. Browne will as­sume the chair­man­ship of the Com­mon­wealth at that sum­mit.

The meet­ing will mark the first time a Caribbean small is­land state has host­ed the gath­er­ing since 2024. Or­gan­is­ers say the sum­mit will fo­cus on cli­mate re­silience and eco­nom­ic in­no­va­tion.

Of­fi­cials in Trinidad and To­ba­go said it is not yet clear who will rep­re­sent the coun­try at the meet­ing or whether Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar will at­tend.

In the ar­ti­cle, Browne said com­ments by Car­ney on co­op­er­a­tion among mid­dle pow­ers have tak­en on new rel­e­vance amid de­vel­op­ments in the Mid­dle East.

“How should coun­tries that are not one of the world’s su­per­pow­ers best nav­i­gate, pros­per, and keep them­selves – to para­phrase Car­ney – ‘at the ta­ble, so they’re not on the menu’,” Browne wrote.

He added that coun­tries should not as­sume the glob­al sys­tem will re­turn to its pre­vi­ous form.

“It is dan­ger­ous­ly naïve to think there will be a re­turn to the ‘fac­to­ry set­tings’ of glob­al struc­tures and mind­sets un­der fu­ture US ad­min­is­tra­tions. The geopo­lit­i­cal or­der is chang­ing, and that change is here to stay.”

Browne al­so point­ed to dis­cus­sions on clos­er co­op­er­a­tion be­tween Cana­da and Aus­tralia, led by Prime Min­is­ter An­tho­ny Al­banese, as well as pro­pos­als for deep­er trade and move­ment agree­ments be­tween Cana­da, Aus­tralia, New Zealand and the Unit­ed King­dom.

Re­flect­ing on his coun­try’s up­com­ing lead­er­ship role in the Com­mon­wealth, Browne said small is­land states have ben­e­fit­ted from the rules-based in­ter­na­tion­al sys­tem.

“Be­cause, self ev­i­dent­ly, we wouldn’t have the ca­pac­i­ty to wield pow­er freely in a dog-eat-dog world.”

He said al­liances among mid­dle pow­ers could help strength­en that frame­work and en­sure small­er states re­main in­flu­en­tial in glob­al de­ci­sion-mak­ing.

Browne added that the Com­mon­wealth of­fers a plat­form for deep­er co­op­er­a­tion.

“This is a mo­ment to bring our na­tions clos­er to­geth­er, to bring down non-tar­iff bar­ri­ers such as over­lap­ping stan­dards and cus­toms de­lays, and strive to cre­ate com­mon stan­dards to smooth trade be­tween Com­mon­wealth cousins. All of this is with­in our pow­er to change.”