Dear Editor,
Since St. Maarten became a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2010, there has arguably never been a moment more critical for decisive, strategic governance than the one facing the island today.
The world is entering a period of growing geopolitical instability, economic uncertainty and energy vulnerability. For small island economies like St. Maarten – almost entirely dependent on imports, tourism and external supply chains – the risks are especially acute.
Yet while global tensions rise and warning signs become increasingly difficult to ignore, local politics continues to revolve around infighting, coalition disputes, political survival and requests for additional financial support from the Netherlands and international institutions.
Meanwhile, the country remains dangerously exposed.
St. Maarten depends almost entirely on imported fossil fuels to keep the country functioning. Electricity generation relies heavily on fuel imports. Water production depends on energy-intensive desalination plants powered by those same fuels. Transportation, food distribution and nearly every aspect of daily life remain tied to imported oil and global shipping routes.
The island also imports the overwhelming majority of its food and household goods. Merchandise imports into St. Maarten exceeded approximately US $1.27 billion in 2024, according to international trade data, with food products, petroleum and household consumer goods forming a major part of those imports.
That means St. Maarten’s economic survival depends almost entirely on uninterrupted international trade and stable global energy markets.
But global stability can no longer be taken for granted.
The growing tensions surrounding Venezuela, the Caribbean and the wider geopolitical struggle involving the United States, China, Russia and energy security are no longer distant issues occurring somewhere far away. The Caribbean sits directly inside the sphere of these developments.
For years, Venezuela has accused the United States of using so-called Cooperative Security Locations (formerly Forward Operating Locations, FOLs) on Aruba and Curaçao for intelligence gathering, surveillance and broader strategic operations. Officially, the facilities are used for anti-drug operations and regional security cooperation. The Netherlands has consistently rejected suggestions that the islands would serve as launchpads for military action against Venezuela.
Yet military analysts have long pointed out that strategically, the islands are highly important because of their location.
If the United States were ever to conduct a major military operation against Venezuela using facilities on Aruba or Curaçao with Dutch approval, or without approval, the consequences could be severe.
Such a scenario could trigger a constitutional crisis within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, create diplomatic fallout across Latin America and Europe, raise questions under international law, and potentially expose the islands themselves to security risks because of their close geographic proximity to Venezuela.
And while such a scenario remains hypothetical, recent years have shown how quickly geopolitical crises can escalate into economic emergencies. Wars, sanctions, disruptions in shipping routes and instability in oil-producing regions have already driven spikes in global fuel and food prices.
For St. Maarten, even temporary disruptions can have devastating consequences.
A sharp rise in oil prices immediately affects electricity costs, water production costs, transportation and food prices. The island has virtually no agricultural self-sufficiency capable of cushioning external shocks. Supermarket shelves, fuel stations and essential services depend on continuous imports.
Yet despite these realities, the country still lacks a long-term national strategy for energy independence, food security and economic resilience.
Instead, political energy continues to be consumed by disputes, public feuds and coalition manoeuvring.
Parliament debates are increasingly dominated by accusations, political blame games and short-term controversies, while structural national vulnerabilities remain largely unresolved. Governments come and go, coalitions collapse and reform agendas repeatedly stall. At the same time, the country continues asking the Netherlands, the World Bank and international partners for additional financial support, grants, loans and recovery funding.
External assistance is important and often necessary for small island states recovering from disasters and economic shocks. But no amount of external funding can permanently compensate for the absence of strategic national planning.
The uncomfortable reality is that St. Maarten cannot continue functioning as a country that reacts only when crises arrive.
The island should already be aggressively investing in renewable energy expansion, solar infrastructure, energy diversification, food production incentives, water security and strategic reserves for emergencies. It should be strengthening local agriculture wherever possible, modernising infrastructure and reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels.
Instead, major infrastructure projects continue facing delays, government services struggle with inefficiency and public frustration over garbage collection, roads and utilities continues growing.
There is also a deeper issue emerging beneath the political noise: a growing public perception that governance itself has become reactive rather than visionary.
Countries do not become resilient during crises. They become resilient before crises happen.
St. Maarten’s vulnerability is not merely economic. It is structural.
The island sits in one of the most strategically sensitive regions in the Western Hemisphere while simultaneously being one of the most import-dependent economies in the Caribbean. That combination should alarm policymakers far more than it currently appears to.
The world is changing rapidly. Energy markets are becoming more volatile. Global supply chains are increasingly fragile. Geopolitical tensions are intensifying. Climate risks continue growing. This is precisely the moment when leadership matters most.
Not leadership focused on political survival. Not leadership focused on coalition arithmetic. Not leadership focused solely on obtaining additional foreign funding.
But leadership focused on national resilience, long-term planning and protecting the country from vulnerabilities that could one day spiral into a full-scale economic and social crisis.
Because if St. Maarten waits until a major geopolitical shock disrupts oil supplies, trade routes or regional stability, it may discover too late that no emergency loan, no grant and no foreign intervention can quickly solve vulnerabilities that should have been addressed years earlier.
A concerned citizen
