PM addresses 81st Session of UN General Assembly

Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

[email protected]

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says the il­lic­it flow of firearms and nar­cotics re­mains one of the most press­ing se­cu­ri­ty threats fac­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go and the wider Caribbean, and she in­tends to use this coun­try’s seat on the Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil to press for stronger in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion to erad­i­cate this scourge.

Speak­ing at the 81st Ses­sion of the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly in New York yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar out­lined the plan as this coun­try pre­pares to serve on the Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil for the 2027-2028 term.

She warned that transna­tion­al or­gan­ised crime con­tin­ues to pose a se­ri­ous chal­lenge to small states, with ma­jor in­ter­na­tion­al crim­i­nal net­works op­er­at­ing across bor­ders.

“Small states face an asym­met­ric chal­lenge from so­phis­ti­cat­ed crim­i­nal net­works that move peo­ple, weapons, nar­cotics and il­lic­it fi­nance across na­tion­al bor­ders,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the threat is par­tic­u­lar­ly acute for Trinidad and To­ba­go be­cause or­gan­ised crime di­rect­ly af­fects cit­i­zens, in­sti­tu­tions and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

“For Trinidad and To­ba­go, this is not an ab­stract threat. These net­works di­rect­ly en­dan­ger our cit­i­zens, our in­sti­tu­tions and our de­vel­op­ment.”

She said restor­ing se­cu­ri­ty has been a key ob­jec­tive of her ad­min­is­tra­tion.

“Since be­ing elect­ed to of­fice in 2025, my gov­ern­ment has pur­sued a peo­ple-cen­tred agen­da fo­cused on safer com­mu­ni­ties, pro­duc­tive in­vest­ment, mod­ern pub­lic ser­vices and ex­pand­ed op­por­tu­ni­ty. A cen­tral part of that agen­da has been restor­ing se­cu­ri­ty to our com­mu­ni­ties,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar told the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly.

The Prime Min­is­ter added, “To this end, we have strength­ened co­op­er­a­tive ef­forts with the Unit­ed States and oth­er part­ners to dis­man­tle crim­i­nal syn­di­cates that have wreaked hav­oc across our coun­try and our re­gion.”

She al­so ex­pressed grat­i­tude to US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump for invit­ing T&T to join the new­ly es­tab­lished Shield of the Amer­i­c­as and the Amer­i­c­as Counter-Car­tel Coali­tion.

“We re­main con­fi­dent that this part­ner­ship will con­tin­ue to pro­mote free­dom, se­cu­ri­ty and pros­per­i­ty in our re­gion.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said tack­ling the il­le­gal move­ment of firearms and nar­cotics will be a cen­tral fo­cus of T&T’s tenure on the Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil.

She ex­plained, “Al­though the re­gion does not man­u­fac­ture these weapons, their avail­abil­i­ty fu­els gang vi­o­lence, or­gan­ised crime, drug traf­fick­ing and loss of life across our so­ci­eties.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said T&T would ad­vo­cate for stronger ac­tion to com­bat the car­tels.

“While serv­ing on the coun­cil, Trinidad and To­ba­go will ad­vo­cate for greater in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion to ad­dress the sources, move­ment and di­ver­sion of il­lic­it weapons, in­clud­ing stronger trac­ing mech­a­nisms, in­for­ma­tion shar­ing, bor­der and mar­itime co­op­er­a­tion, and deep­er co­op­er­a­tion among source, tran­sit and des­ti­na­tion coun­tries to dis­rupt weapons, nar­cotics and il­lic­it fi­nan­cial flows.”

She added, “Trinidad and To­ba­go will bring the ex­pe­ri­ence of the Caribbean to the coun­cil, where the im­pact of il­lic­it firearms demon­strates how transna­tion­al or­gan­ised crime can threat­en the se­cu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty of States even in the ab­sence of tra­di­tion­al armed con­flict.”

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so iden­ti­fied Haiti as a ma­jor con­cern and re­it­er­at­ed T&T’s sup­port for in­ter­na­tion­al ef­forts to re­store se­cu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty there.

“Se­cu­ri­ty as­sis­tance is nec­es­sary, but last­ing sta­bil­i­ty will al­so re­quire func­tion­ing in­sti­tu­tions, eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ty and a cred­i­ble po­lit­i­cal process.”

She stressed that Haiti’s fu­ture must ul­ti­mate­ly be de­ter­mined by Haitians.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go stands in full sup­port of in­ter­na­tion­al ef­forts to help re­store se­cu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty in Haiti, while main­tain­ing that the coun­try’s po­lit­i­cal fu­ture must ul­ti­mate­ly be Hait­ian-led and Hait­ian-owned.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said T&T would work along­side Cari­com and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners to ad­dress Haiti’s chal­lenges and broad­er re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns.

She al­so out­lined oth­er pri­or­i­ties for the coun­try’s Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil term, in­clud­ing women, chil­dren, peace and se­cu­ri­ty, as well as the im­pact of ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies on glob­al sta­bil­i­ty.

“T&T will ad­vo­cate for an ap­proach that safe­guards in­ter­na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty with­out clos­ing off in­no­va­tion, de­vel­op­ment and op­por­tu­ni­ty, and that en­sures de­vel­op­ing coun­tries have a mean­ing­ful voice in shap­ing the rules for this new tech­no­log­i­cal era.”

T&T was elect­ed to the Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil for the 2027-2028 term with the sup­port of 181 mem­ber states.

On this mile­stone, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “We re­gard that over­whelm­ing ex­pres­sion of con­fi­dence not sim­ply as an achieve­ment, but as a solemn re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.”

She said T&T would ap­proach its Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil tenure with an in­de­pen­dent, prac­ti­cal out­look and a com­mit­ment to build­ing con­sen­sus among mem­ber states.

T&T lists 24 gangs as ter­ror­ist or­gan­i­sa­tions

Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar has al­so joined fel­low mem­bers of the US-led Shield of the Amer­i­c­as ini­tia­tive in des­ig­nat­ing 24 crim­i­nal gangs and or­gan­i­sa­tions as ter­ror­ist en­ti­ties.

This came af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar par­tic­i­pat­ed in the coali­tion’s meet­ing yes­ter­day, which was host­ed by the Unit­ed States.

US Pres­i­dent Trump and Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Ru­bio ad­dressed par­tic­i­pants on re­gion­al ef­forts to com­bat or­gan­ised crime, drug traf­fick­ing and gang vi­o­lence, as the ad­min­is­tra­tion ex­pands its counter-car­tel strat­e­gy across the West­ern Hemi­sphere.

Ac­cord­ing to a Gov­ern­ment state­ment, the des­ig­na­tion is in­tend­ed to re­strict the abil­i­ty of these groups to con­duct acts of vi­o­lence through­out the re­gion.

The Gov­ern­ment said T&T’s par­tic­i­pa­tion re­flects its com­mit­ment to tack­ling crime and gang vi­o­lence through re­gion­al part­ner­ships and co­or­di­nat­ed ac­tion.

The state­ment said par­tic­i­pa­tion in the ini­tia­tive will strength­en co­op­er­a­tion with the US in three key ar­eas: eco­nom­ic se­cu­ri­ty, en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty.

The Shield of the Amer­i­c­as was es­tab­lished by the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion as a re­gion­al counter-car­tel coali­tion. In March, Trump said mem­ber coun­tries would co­or­di­nate ef­forts to de­ny crim­i­nal or­gan­i­sa­tions ter­ri­to­ry, fi­nanc­ing and re­sources, while sup­port­ing the train­ing and mo­bil­i­sa­tion of part­ner se­cu­ri­ty forces.