SKN’s UN Envoy Joins OECS Foreign Ministers Meeting
Dr. Mutryce Williams, Permanent Representative of St. Kitts and Nevis to the United Nations, represented the Federation at the 10th Meeting of the OECS Council of Ministers: Foreign Affairs, held in New York on Sunday, September 20, on the margins of the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly, according to an OECS media release.
The meeting, hosted by the Permanent Mission of Antigua and Barbuda to the UN, marked the formal handover of the Council’s Chairmanship from the Honourable D. Fitzgerald Bramble, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, to Honourable E.P. Chet Greene, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Antigua and Barbuda.
Opening the meeting, OECS Director General Dr. Didacus Jules stressed the need for sustained coordination among member states. “Our region’s strength has always been our capacity to act together, and this meeting reaffirms that our diplomatic architecture must keep pace with a world that is changing quickly around us,” he said.
In handing over the chairmanship, Bramble reflected on the gravity of the international environment facing OECS member states. Accepting the role, Greene pointed to the vulnerabilities of small states and called for stronger regional connectivity. “We need stronger air links among our islands, regular sea transport for people and cargo, and new connections to nearby markets in Central and South America,” Greene said, adding that carriers, ports, exporters, importers, financial institutions and investors must help design and finance such services.
Greene outlined a set of priorities for OECS foreign policy going forward, including safeguarding the OECS Economic Union, securing fair treatment for Citizenship by Investment and financial services programmes, expanding access to climate finance, strengthening air and maritime connectivity, and defending multilateralism and international law. Ministers also agreed to strengthen the OECS Commission’s diplomatic implementation capacity and to convene a dedicated Foreign Ministers’ Retreat before the end of the year.
Beyond Williams, the meeting drew senior officials from across the sub-region, including Saint Lucia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Alva Baptiste, Grenada’s Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs Roxie McLeish-Hutchinson, and Antigua and Barbuda’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Walton Webson.
