BASSETERRE, St. Kitts--Ambassador of the Argentine Republic to Barbados, Gustavo Martinez Pandiani has praised St. Kitts and Nevis for its principled position on the political imbroglio unfolding in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Ambassador Pandiani who was in St. Kitts and Nevis for the country’s fourth Diplomatic Week, April 7 to 12, with theme “Securing a Resilient Future through Strategic Diplomacy and Effective Dialogue”, said he was impressed with the leadership of Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris, St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister and Chairman of the Caribbean Community CARICOM and Mark Brantley, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Federal Cabinet and Premier of Nevis.
“I just want to recognise and express publicly to St. Kitts and Nevis [my appreciation – Ed.] for its fantastic leadership within CARICOM, especially in the matter of the Venezuelan crisis. St. Kitts and Nevis has been instrumental to put the Lima Group [multilateral body established following the Lima Declaration on August 8, 2017, in the Peruvian capital of Lima, where representatives of 12 countries met in order to establish a peaceful exit to the crisis in Venezuela] and CARICOM together, and your prime minister and your minister of foreign affairs, Dr. Harris and Mr. Brantley, they had been very professional and efficient in keeping the dialogue open, so I think it’s important when a small country such as St. Kitts and Nevis can lead on such a critical issue,” said Pandiani.
Ambassador Pandiani joins a number of notable persons, who have commended St. Kitts and Nevis’ prime minister for his strong position taken as Chairman of CARICOM on the Venezuela situation.
St. Kitts and Nevis’ Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS), Dr. Everson Hull said, “The position that St. Kitts and Nevis has taken is fully consistent with that which is taken by the Heads of the CARICOM group as well as both the United Nations Charter as well as the OAS Charter. The policy explicitly states that there must be no intervention in the affairs of a member state without the explicit request of that member.”
He went on to say, “If St. Kitts and Nevis is to intervene in the affairs of Venezuela that request must come from Venezuela. That has not happened and therefore we start off with that – the OAS being in violation of the principles of its own Charter, as well as the UN has the same principles, so therefore on that basis, we have abstained from voting rather than taking sides.”
Additionally, St. Kitts and Nevis’ Permanent Representative to the UN, Sam Condor said, “I was very pleased by the leadership taken by our prime minister when the crisis broke. As Chairman of CARICOM, he led a Heads meeting and spoke to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the General Assembly. I think it was a very successful meeting. I think CARICOM set the stage and the tone,” Condor said. “In fact, were it not for that early intervention, I think things would have been a lot worse and I want to commend CARICOM – the leadership led by our prime minister, for the role they took early and really set the stage, and so what people are doing right now is following that lead.”
