Sobers: T&T has backing of 100+ nations for UN Security Council bid

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Sean Sobers says T&T has se­cured the sup­port of more than 100 coun­tries, in­clud­ing Cari­com states, in its bid for a non-per­ma­nent seat on the Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil (UN­SC).

T&T has for­mal­ly de­clared its can­di­da­cy for a non-per­ma­nent seat on the UN­SC for the 2027–2028 term. The elec­tion, con­duct­ed by se­cret bal­lot, is sched­uled for June 3, dur­ing the 80th ses­sion of the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly.

The seat falls un­der the Latin Amer­i­can and Caribbean Group (GRU­LAC) al­lo­ca­tion.

On Wednes­day evening, just be­fore the Sen­ate ad­journed, Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Dr Amery Browne called on the Gov­ern­ment to up­date Par­lia­ment on the coun­try’s bid. The for­mer for­eign af­fairs min­is­ter raised con­cerns that re­cent for­eign pol­i­cy po­si­tions may have un­der­mined con­fi­dence among in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners.

Browne not­ed that the UN­SC has the au­thor­i­ty to im­pose sanc­tions and act to main­tain or re­store in­ter­na­tion­al peace and se­cu­ri­ty. He ques­tioned the Gov­ern­ment’s readi­ness to ex­er­cise that re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

“Can all re­spon­si­bil­i­ty on the Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil be ful­filled while the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs is­sues state­ments with­in hours sup­port­ing the bomb­ing of an­oth­er sov­er­eign state?” he asked.

He al­so crit­i­cised what he de­scribed as sup­port for mil­i­tary ac­tions with­out suf­fi­cient scruti­ny and said the Gov­ern­ment had failed to reaf­firm its com­mit­ment to the UN Char­ter.

Browne warned that a UN­SC seat for a small is­land de­vel­op­ing state like Trinidad and To­ba­go re­quires an in­de­pen­dent voice that rep­re­sents the best in­ter­ests of Cari­com, rather than act­ing as a “vas­sal of an­oth­er voice.”

“It re­quires us to car­ry the voice of Cari­com, the val­ues of CELAC and the OAS in­to spaces where oth­ers may not have ac­cess—to speak for vic­tims of war, not per­pe­tra­tors,” he said.

Re­spond­ing in the Sen­ate, Sobers de­fend­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s for­eign pol­i­cy stance, mak­ing no apol­o­gy for its align­ment with the Unit­ed States and the ad­min­is­tra­tion of Don­ald Trump.

“Adopt­ing a po­si­tion against nar­co-ter­ror­ism and nar­co-traf­fick­ing and con­demn­ing it at mul­ti­lat­er­al fo­rums such as the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly—what could be wrong with that?” he said.

Sobers al­so main­tained that Trinidad and To­ba­go’s can­di­da­cy re­mains strong.

“I wish to ad­vise the Sen­ate that this coun­try’s bid for a non-per­ma­nent seat on the UN­SC for the pe­ri­od is cur­rent­ly un­con­test­ed with­in the GRU­LAC re­gion,” he said, adding that the coun­try con­tin­ues to en­joy broad in­ter­na­tion­al back­ing.

“We have Cari­com sup­port on this is­sue, as well as glob­al sup­port from over 100 UN mem­ber states, in­clud­ing re­gion­al group­ings,” he said.

Sobers added that while the Gov­ern­ment main­tains a “Trinidad and To­ba­go first” pol­i­cy, the coun­try would rep­re­sent re­gion­al in­ter­ests if elect­ed.

“The ar­eas of na­tion­al pri­or­i­ty that will guide Trinidad and To­ba­go’s role are con­sis­tent with re­spect for re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al rule of law, se­cu­ri­ty, pro­tec­tion of vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties, and ad­dress­ing emerg­ing threats such as il­lic­it traf­fick­ing of small arms, light weapons and ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence,” he said.

The Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil com­pris­es 15 mem­bers, in­clud­ing five per­ma­nent mem­bers with ve­to pow­er—Chi­na, France, Rus­sia, the Unit­ed King­dom and the Unit­ed States—and ten non-per­ma­nent mem­bers elect­ed for two-year terms.

It is the on­ly UN body with the au­thor­i­ty to is­sue legal­ly bind­ing res­o­lu­tions, work­ing to main­tain in­ter­na­tion­al peace through sanc­tions, peace­keep­ing op­er­a­tions or au­tho­rised mil­i­tary ac­tion.