KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves says United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres will attend the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Summit to be held here on March 1.
“The Secretary General of the United Nations has already indicated that he is coming,” said Gonsalves, whose pro tempore presidency of the hemispheric grouping expired in January but will preside over the March summit.
“I think it is the first time that Antonio Guterres or any secretary general for that matter of the United Nations is coming to St. Vincent and the Grenadines before or after independence,” Gonsalves said on the state-owned NBC Radio.
“And there are other people we have invited from the United States, from Europe, from Africa, from India, from the ASEAN countries — Association of Southeast Asian Nations,” he said, as he reported on his site visit to Sandals Beaches Resort in Buccament Bay, which will host the one-day summit ahead of its official opening on March 27.
“They are working around the clock because Sandals sees this event; just think about it: You are having 33 heads of state and governments, or if all 33 ain’t come, they will be represented by a very high level. I have been advised that most of the heads are coming…,” Gonsalves told radio listeners.
“So it will be quite an event, and imagine Sandals opening with the 33 nations of CELAC. That is 650 million people. Then you are having representatives coming from Europe, from Africa,” Gonsalves said, adding that he had not heard as yet who would represent India at the event.
“But, this thing is going to be beamed worldwide. And this is something which Sandals, the publicity, they have a splendid public relations machinery. You imagine what they are going to do with this.
“And for us, St. Vincent and the Grenadines…People normally talk about putting St. Vincent and the Grenadines on the map. We are on the map already, but you know the expression, moving further, lifting it higher and higher,” he added.
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