UNITED NATIONS, CMC – Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne says any fight against drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea must rest on cooperation and law.
“Without judging facts not before us, including reports of lethal incidents off the coast of Venezuela, we restate a simple principle: the fight against drug trafficking must rest on cooperation and law.
“Interdictions should proceed under clear legal authority and rules of engagement that minimise risk to life, respect for sovereignty and the law of the sea, and prompt information-sharing and review,” Browne told the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday.
He said that whereas Antigua and Barbuda stands ready to work with all partners against traffickers, “we are concerned with the buildup of military assets, including a nuclear submarine, indicating the possibility of military conflict.
“We remind everyone that our hemisphere should be respected as a zone of peace, not a theatre of military conflict.”
Earlier this month, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) foreign ministers wrote to the United States, calling on Washington to provide assurances that any military action aimed at Venezuela will not threaten regional stability and will not occur without prior consultation and warning.
The United States has ordered an amphibious squadron to the southern Caribbean as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to address threats from Latin American drug cartels. A nuclear-powered attack submarine, additional P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, several destroyers, and a guided-missile cruiser have also been allocated to the US Southern Command as part of the mission.
Venezuela has since responded to what it termed the threat posed by the United States and has itself marshalled its troops along its borders.
Trump has since taken credit for what he termed the ”lethal strike” against suspected drug trafficking, resulting in the deaths of at least 14 people at sea.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, who has openly supported Washington’s war on drugs in Latin America and the Caribbean, said that her administration had “not engaged and has no intention of engaging” the 15-member regional integration grouping CARICOM “on this matter”.
She has said that she has “no sympathy for traffickers” and that the US military should “kill them all violently,” and on Friday, reiterated her support for the US presence in the Caribbean during her address to the UNGA.
In his address, Prime Minister Browne also addressed the situation in Cuba, where the decades-old economic and trade embargo by the United States has led to the Cuban people having to live “under a suffocating trade embargo, and Cuba remains listed by one country as a state sponsor of terrorism.
“We all know that this classification is a hoax. It is in our hemisphere’s interest to move towards normalised relations, consistent with sovereign equality. Normalisation is not a concession; it is a pathway to dialogue and to fashioning a way forward that ensures regional stability through negotiated, binding agreements.”
Browne said that the situation in Haiti demands sustained attention, not cycles of improvisation.
“Funding has arrived in fits and starts while suffering has grown. We support a single, Haitian-led plan, executed under a single Security Council mandate and financed through a single, transparent Haiti Fund, aligning the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the Caribbean Community, behind one budgeted programme with public accountability.”
He said disbursements should follow results such as roads retaken from gang control, extortion stopped, arms and illicit finance interdicted, civilians protected, and essential services restored.
“Haiti needs one mandate, one Haitian-led plan, one fund — accountable and transparent. We urge every member of the Security Council to support the proposed Resolution on increased security assistance for Haiti that is now before it.
“Action is long overdue; the Council must act to help Haiti and its long-suffering people,” said Browne.
In his wide-ranging address, the Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister also spoke of the climate change situation, saying the climate crisis is not a weather forecast for small island states, noting, “it is our daily plight.
“Shores retreat, reefs bleach, storms intensify, while droughts destroy crops and animals. This is not fate; Science has proven that it is the product of sustained high emissions, which imperil small states and also damage the environment, economies, and health of the very nations that produce them. Climate change science is not fraudulent, and we ignore it to our own peril.”
Browne said that his country supports a “just, orderly energy transition…that caps, then fairly phases down and ultimately phases out the fuels that drive this destruction, without sacrificing energy security or development.
“We favour a fair carbon levy on the heaviest emitters, public and private, with proceeds directed to adaptation, loss and damage, and resilience. “
He said that the Loss and Damage Fund must operate as promised, “predictable, front-loaded financing, that arrives when disaster strikes; disbursed timely, on objective triggers, so that help comes at the speed of need.
“But finance must be fair before a storm hits. Currently, the inequitable international financial system forces the most vulnerable countries to pay the highest price to protect themselves. “These climate disasters force us to borrow expensively to rebuild. Consequently, debt swells and resilience stalls. We call, yet again, for full adoption of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index across international financial institutions, so that exposure to shocks opens access to concessional terms.”
Browne said lending should align with climate horizons, offer extended repayment periods, low fixed rates, sensible grace periods, and climate-resilient debt clauses that automatically pause payments after verified shocks.
He said local-currency lending windows would end the foreign-exchange penalty that deepens debt without adding value, adding “that, at least, would be a step along the road to justice.
“For islands like mine, the ocean is not scenery; it is the source of food and jobs, and the opportunity for new chances of growth and development. But it must be protected. We urge decisive action against illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing; plastics that choke reefs; and pollution that steals mangroves.
“As custodians of vast Exclusive Economic Zones, small islands offer partnership and stewardship. Let us bring back robust global plastics and fossil fuel non-proliferation treaties; expand blue-carbon finance for mangroves and seagrass, and make maritime domain awareness and the provision of satellite and data-sharing services standard support for SIDS.
“ Until independent science proves no serious harm, we support a moratorium on seabed mining. No one should mortgage the ocean floor to pay short-term bills,” Browne told the international community.
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