KINGSTOWN, St Vincent — Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, minister of foreign affairs, Sir Louie Straker; minister of finance, Camillo Gonsalves and Eloise Gonsalves comprise Saint Vincent and the Grenadines delegation at the General Assembly Session (74UNGA).
On Monday, prime minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves addressed a high-level meeting on universal health coverage and attended the climate action summit and the ALBA-TCP political council meeting where he presented the political declaration.
There were also bilateral meetings with high-level representatives from several countries including the prime minister of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, the president of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas, the vice president of Cote d’Ivoire, Daniel Kablan Duncan and the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
During this mission, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is expected to establish diplomatic relations with at least two countries and engage in discussions with several representatives from other countries on a range of issues.
The 74UNGA is the first meeting of the 93-member body that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is attending since being elected by 185 members of this very body to serve as a non-permanent member on the United Nations Security Council for the period 2020-2021.
In June the UN General Assembly elected five countries to the Security Council, including Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the smallest nation ever to secure a seat. Also elected were Estonia, Niger, Tunisia, Viet Nam.
Prime minister Gonsalves described the election of his multi-island nation of around 110,000 people, as a “historic occasion”, added “The country is committed to the principle of sustainable development and, as a Small Island Developing State in danger of inundation by rising seas, is very concerned about the consequences of adverse climate change and intends to work very closely with the other members of the Security Council. The UN, he added, has limitations, but it also has “profound strengths.”
Dr Gonsalves is expected to address the 74UNGA on Friday afternoon.
On Saturday, September 28, he will host a town hall meeting where he will engage Vincentians living in the New York area. Dr Gonsalves is expected to return to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tuesday, October 1.
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What is interesting and should be of concern is that SVG taxpayers are paying for Gonsalves to be at this meeting. Yet he is not there as SVG’s representative, he is there as the ALBA representative, look at the name place in front of him in the picture.
He is up there close to Canada, so let him go to Canada and face the woman who brought sexual charges against him in SVG. Since she made those allegations he has never been to Canada, which is an act of cowardice.
Jolly did you know, he also held a Town Hall meeting in Crown Heights New York for Vincentian New Yorkers, and disallowed any questions being asked of him. He gave a speech, mingled with the folks before and after and left.
Last year he decided not to hold a town hall meeting and the year before that a 45 year old woman accused him of sexual assault of her by him when she was only fifteen years old. So obviously he did not want a repeat of that and all the news stories it carried with it.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-25-fg-rape25-story.html
https://vifreepress.com/2016/08/serial-rapist-pm-ralph-gonsalves-denies-bill-cosby-caribbean/