Diamond, St. Vincent and the Grenadines – Chair of the OECS Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble, speaking at the opening ceremony of the Ninth Meeting of the Council, warning that small states face existential threats if they fail to act collectively.
“If we are not prepared to navigate these global times we risk and I say this without fear of contradiction we risk extinction as sovereign states,” Minister Bramble said.
In his address, Bramble highlighted the strain on the international order, citing the return of great power rivalry, the weaponization of trade and energy, and the deepening climate emergency. He stressed that crises in Cuba and Haiti are not distant concerns but “lived realities that test our solidarity, our governance and our humanity.”
The minister said that with a population of just over 110,000, St. Vincent and the Grenadines cannot rely on size but must project influence “through coherence, through solidarity and through the disciplined collective use of our voice in international forums.”
The meeting’s agenda, he noted, covers urgent issues, including geopolitical diversification, energy resilience, developments in Haiti and Cuba, the restructuring of joint OECS missions, and safeguarding the integrity of citizenship-by-investment programs.
Bramble closed with a call to action: “History will judge us not by the eloquence of our interventions but by the courage and consequences of our decisions.”