NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – Prime Minister Phillip Davis says diplomacy, now more than ever, is required to settle disputes, insisting that “patient cooperation can still create peace.
“We live in an age when the world feels impatient with the slow work of diplomacy. When confrontation too often replaces conversation, and certainty takes the place of understanding. Many have come to believe that nations will act only out of self-interest and that multilateralism has lost its meaning. Yet history reminds us that where diplomacy fails, instability thrives,” Prime Minister Davis told the opening ceremony for Diplomatic Week 2025.10.20
He told the audience that for The Bahamas, diplomacy has never been an ornament of state, saying, “it is the foundation of our national survival.
“We are a small island nation, but we live within a global system that moves with great speed. The tides that reach our shores carry the effects of global decisions made far beyond these islands.”
He said that the global system is not an abstract or distant concept, as it flows through the local economy and even the food supply.
“It determines the flow of tourists who visit our islands and the price of the goods that fill our stores. That is why for The Bahamas, diplomacy is the mechanism through which we negotiate advantage, manage risk, and protect our sovereignty.”
He said 50 years after the country established diplomatic relations with the European Union and with Japan as a “young, newly independent, and untested in global affairs,” it had done so on the basis that relationships “were based on respect and reciprocity.
“We learned early that friendship between nations, like friendship between people, requires consistency, humility, and good faith. Today, we celebrate the golden jubilee of those diplomatic relationships.
“These relationships were not built in moments of ease alone. They were built through changing governments, shifting economies, and evolving global realities. But they have endured because they rest on shared principles.”
Prime Minister Davis said that diplomacy may appear distant to some, but its outcomes reach deep into communities.
“When our negotiators secure new climate finance mechanisms, they are creating opportunities for Bahamian contractors to rebuild seawalls in Grand Bahama. They are providing the funding to reinforce schools in Abaco. They are ensuring that the people of Long Island and Exuma can live with greater protection from rising seas.
“When we expand trade partnerships and attract new investment, diplomacy becomes the quiet architecture of opportunity. It opens doors for Bahamian exporters, for small businesses, and for tourism operators who depend on reliable air and sea links.
“It allows for the exchange of technology, skills, and knowledge. The trade agreements and investment treaties we negotiate are the reason a young Bahamian can find work in a hotel, a resort, or a renewable energy project.”
He said when representatives of the country speak in international forums for small island developing states, “we are standing on principle.
“We are demanding fairness. We are reminding the world that our size does not diminish our right to influence decisions that affect our very existence. This is the work of diplomacy – the unseen effort that makes daily life in The Bahamas more secure, more prosperous, and more stable.
“My government is committed to an active and strategic foreign policy that reflects the complexity of our times. We are building a professional and modern foreign service equipped to operate in a world defined by rapid change.
“Our diplomats must now understand climate finance as well as international law, energy transition as well as economics, digital regulation as well as traditional trade,” he said, adding that “we are also deepening our cooperation with regional partners through CARICOM, because we know that small states are strongest when they act collectively”.
Prime Minister Davis said that The Bahamas has long understood that isolation is not an option.
“We sit at a strategic crossroads between North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. That position gives us reach, but it also gives us responsibility. We have a duty to act as a bridge – between the developed and developing world, between the large and the small, between the powerful and the vulnerable.”
He said in a time of global fragmentation, nations like his can demonstrate that cooperation is still possible.
“As we begin Diplomatic Week 2025, I ask that we see this as a reminder that peace does not sustain itself. It must be cultivated through conversation, compromise, and courage. The world does not need more noise. It needs steadier voices – voices that can calm conflict, tolerate differences, and build coalitions for the common good.
“Small nations like ours must continue to be those voices. We must continue to engage constructively, to listen carefully, and to act decisively,” Prime Minister Davis told the ceremony.
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