Morris tells OAS forum: T&T confronting transnational organised crime

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Min­is­ter in the For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­istry Nicholas Mor­ris says the il­lic­it traf­fick­ing of firearms, nar­cotics and per­sons pos­es a sig­nif­i­cant threat to na­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go, and it is be­ing con­front­ed head-on.

He made the com­ment while ad­dress­ing del­e­gates on the is­sue of con­fronting transna­tion­al or­gan­ised crime at the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly of the 56th Reg­u­lar Ses­sion of the Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS) in Pana­ma on Tues­day.

Mor­ris al­so thanked Pana­ma for its vote in T&T’s re­cent elec­tion to a Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil seat.

Speak­ing on the “Firm Mul­ti­lat­er­al­ism in De­fence of Democ­ra­cy: Hemi­spher­ic Se­cu­ri­ty and Sta­bil­i­ty in the Amer­i­can States, Mor­ris com­mend­ed Pana­ma for con­ven­ing the meet­ing “at such a piv­otal mo­ment” in the hemi­sphere’s life.

Mor­ris said, “The chal­lenges con­fronting the Amer­i­c­as are sub­stan­tial and ever evolv­ing, but they are not in­sur­mount­able. They re­quire what this as­sem­bly’s theme right­ly de­scribes as ‘’firm mul­ti­lat­er­al­ism’.”

Not­ing T&T’s elec­tion to the UN Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, Mor­ris said T&T’s com­mit­ment to ad­dress­ing the is­sues will al­so guide its tenure on the plat­form of build­ing con­sen­sus for the re­al­i­sa­tion of sus­tain­able peace and se­cu­ri­ty. He thanked Pana­ma for its vote of con­fi­dence in the UN­SC elec­tion.

Mor­ris said the suc­cess was at­trib­ut­able to the “trans­for­ma­tion­al and vi­sion­ary pol­i­cy” of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Cari­com and For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers and all hard-work­ing staff at home and abroad.

He said T&T will seek to ad­vance di­a­logue and prac­ti­cal ac­tion in three pri­or­i­ty ar­eas: curb­ing the il­lic­it traf­fick­ing of small arms and light weapons, strength­en­ing the Women, Peace and Se­cu­ri­ty agen­da - par­tic­u­lar­ly pro­tec­tion and em­pow­er­ment of women and chil­dren - and ex­am­in­ing the im­pli­ca­tions of ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence for in­ter­na­tion­al peace and se­cu­ri­ty.

“We look for­ward to work­ing with part­ners across the Amer­i­c­as and be­yond to build con­sen­sus and ad­vance mean­ing­ful out­comes on these crit­i­cal is­sues,” he added.

Mor­ris said the as­sem­bly had con­vened at a crit­i­cal junc­ture.

“The con­tem­po­rary hemi­sphere faces a com­plex ar­ray of chal­lenges. Threats to de­mo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nance per­sist in var­i­ous forms. De­vel­op­ment gaps re­main pro­nounced, par­tic­u­lar­ly among vul­ner­a­ble and de­vel­op­ing economies. So­cial in­equal­i­ties con­tin­ue to con­strain op­por­tu­ni­ties for many of our cit­i­zens,” Mor­ris said.

“At the same time, the im­per­a­tive for cross-coun­try, mul­ti-sec­toral co­op­er­a­tion has nev­er been greater. No mem­ber state, re­gard­less of size or ca­pac­i­ty, can ef­fec­tive­ly ad­dress these chal­lenges in iso­la­tion. Peace, se­cu­ri­ty and pros­per­i­ty in the Amer­i­c­as de­pend fun­da­men­tal­ly up­on our abil­i­ty to work to­geth­er.”

He said democ­ra­cy in the hemi­sphere can­not be sus­tained by in­sti­tu­tions alone, but thrives on the con­tin­u­ous im­prove­ment of the cir­cum­stances of all cit­i­zens.

“In de­fend­ing our de­mo­c­ra­t­ic sys­tems, we must al­so con­front the scourge of transna­tion­al or­gan­ised crime. Crim­i­nal net­works un­der­mine de­mo­c­ra­t­ic in­sti­tu­tions, weak­en cit­i­zen se­cu­ri­ty, im­pede eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment and erode pub­lic trust,” he added.

“In Trinidad and To­ba­go, the il­lic­it traf­fick­ing of firearms, nar­cotics and per­sons pos­es a sig­nif­i­cant threat to na­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty and is be­ing con­front­ed head-on. This is why we have worked along­side our hemi­spher­ic part­ners, through mul­ti­lat­er­al­ism, to con­front the scourge of nar­cotics, lead­ing to a 42 per cent re­duc­tion in crime in Trinidad and To­ba­go over the past year.”

Mor­ris, who met with US Deputy Sec­re­tary of State Christo­pher Lan­dau and oth­er for­eign min­is­ters, al­so spoke at an­oth­er meet­ing on pro­tect­ing Bo­livia’s democ­ra­cy from vi­o­lent dis­or­der. This fol­lows block­ades and mass demon­stra­tions and strikes against the Ro­dri­go Paz gov­ern­ment.

Mor­ris cit­ed T&T’s com­mit­ment to con­tin­ued col­lab­o­ra­tion with re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners in build­ing a more se­cure, re­silient and pros­per­ous Amer­i­c­as. He not­ed T&T’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the March Shield of the Amer­i­c­as Sum­mit along­side Ar­genti­na, Bo­livia and oth­er re­gion­al part­ners, which he said re­flect­ed a shared com­mit­ment to strength­en­ing de­mo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nance and re­gion­al sta­bil­i­ty.

He said T&T joined fel­low Shield mem­bers in the joint state­ment of May 21, 2026, which ex­pressed sup­port for Bo­livia’s gov­ern­ment and ad­vo­cat­ed for peace, se­cu­ri­ty and the re­spect for the rule of law and democ­ra­cy for a stronger Bo­livia.