Protocolary meeting

CONSEJO PERMANENTE DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN DE LOS ESTADOS AMERICANOS

ACTA DE LA SESIÓN PROTOCOLAR CELEBRADA EL

12 DE ENERO DE 2022

Nómina de los miembros que asistieron a la sesión

En la ciudad de Washington, D. C., a las diez y cuatro minutos de la mañana del miércoles 12 de enero de 2022, celebró sesión protocolar el Consejo Permanente de la Organización de los Estados Americanos con el objeto de recibir al excelentísimo doctor Timothy Sylvester Harris, Primer Ministro de la Federación de Saint Kitts y Nevis. Presidió la sesión el Embajador Everson Hull, Representante Permanente de Saint Kitts y Nevis y Presidente del Consejo Permanente. Asistieron los siguientes miembros:

Embajador Anthony Phillips-Spencer, Representante Permanente de Trinidad y Tobago

Embajadora Rita Claverie Diaz de Sciolli, Representante Permanente de Guatemala

Embajador Alejandro Ordóñez Maldonado, Representante Permanente de Colombia

Embajador Carlos Alberto Játiva Naranjo, Representante Permanente del Ecuador

Embajadora Yolande Yvonne Smith, Representante Permanente de Grenada

Embajador Gustavo Tarre, Representante Permanente de Venezuela

Embajadora María del Carmen Roquebert, Representante Permanente de Panamá

Embajadora Alejandra Solano, Representante Permanente de Costa Rica

Embajador Issa Kort Garriga, Representante Permanente de Chile

Embajador Héctor Arce Zaconeta, Representante Permanente de Bolivia

Embajador Lynn Raymond Young, Representante Permanente de Belize

Embajador Arturo McFields, Representante Permanente de Nicaragua

Embajador Charles Léon, Representante Permanente de Haití

Señora Judith-Anne Rolle, Representante Alterna del Commonwealth de Dominica

Primera Secretaria Shirnaya Valin Stephen, Representante Interina de Santa Lucía

Ministro Consejero Omari S. Williams, Representante Interino de San Vicente y las Granadinas

Segunda Secretaria Juanita Cleopatra Lont, Representante Interina de Suriname

Señor Raúl Mariano Martínez, Representante Interino del Paraguay

Señor Bradley A. Freden, Representante Interino de los Estados Unidos

Consejera Gillian Ingrid Joseph, Representante Alterna de Antigua and Barbuda

Ministra Consejera Saira Esmeralda Ponce Rosales, Representante Alterna de Honduras

Consejero François Jubinville, Representante Alterno del Canadá

Ministro Consejero Kennedy Obed Reyes, Representante Alterno de El Salvador

Consejero Pedro DA Silveira Montenegro, Representante Alterno del Brasil

Señor Jose Luis Domínguez Brito, Representante Alterno de la República Dominicana

Ministro Alexis Damian Elias, Representante Alterno de la Argentina

Consejera Lesley Alice Dowridge-Collins, Representante Alterna de Guyana

Señor José Rodríguez, Representante Alterno del Perú

Estuvieron también presentes el Secretario General, Luis Almagro Lemes, y el Secretario General Adjunto, Embajador Nestor Mendez, Secretario del Consejo Permanente.

Aprobación del orden del día

El PRESIDENTE: Good morning. I am pleased to call to order this protocolary meeting of the Permanent Council, convened to receive the Prime Minister of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, His Excellency Dr. the Honorable Timothy Harris.

[El proyecto de orden del día incluye los siguientes puntos:

1. Palabras de bienvenida del Presidente del Consejo Permanente de la Organización de los Estados Americanos, Embajador Everson Hull, Representante Permanente de Saint Kitts y Nevis

2. Palabras del Secretario General de la Organización de los Estados Americanos, señor Luis Almagro Lemes

3. Alocución del excelentísimo doctor Timothy Sylvester Harris, Primer Ministro de la Federación de Saint Kitts y Nevis]

The order of business for which, we hereby adopt is adopted.

Your Excellency, Prime Minister of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis; the Honorable Minister, Mark Brantley, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Aviation; distinguished permanent and alternate representatives; Mr. Luis Almagro, Secretary General; Ambassador Nestor Mendez, Assistant Secretary General; distinguished permanent observers; ladies and gentlemen.

It is my honor, as Permanent Representative of Saint Kitts and Nevis and Chair of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) to warmly welcome the Prime Minister of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, His Excellency Dr. Timothy Sylvester Harris. Honorable Prime Minister, the Permanent Council of the Organization of the American States extends to you a fraternal greeting in solidarity as fellow nations of this Hemisphere. We welcome you with respect and appreciation in this hemispheric Organization, wherein our governments pursue the shared aim of strengthening democracy, promoting, and protecting human rights, advancing integral development, and multidimensional security.

Palabras del Secretario General de la Organización de los Estados Americanos, señor Luis Almagro Lemes

El PRESIDENTE: In keeping with the order of business of this protocolary meeting of the Permanent Council, I am pleased to offer the floor to the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Mr. Luis Almagro.

Mr. Secretary General, you have the floor, please.

El SECRETARIO GENERAL: Excellencies, good morning.

Honorable Prime Minister, I am deeply honored to welcome you to this virtual Hall of the Americas and since you are joining us so early in the year, I extend my best wishes for a happy, healthy, and productive New Year to you and the people of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Allow me at the outset to congratulate you on your stellar stewardship of your country during this critical moment of the pandemic, which has been so challenging for so many of us. I join the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in commending you in the success of your vaccine roll-out which has resulted in nearly 80 percent of your citizens vaccinated and only 28 deaths reported as of January 2022. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Saint Kitts and Nevis entered the COVID-19 pandemic in a position of fiscal strength, and projects a 10 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth for Saint Kitts and Nevis in 2022, dependent on a strong tourism recovery. And so, I commend you and your Government and wish you continued success in 2022. Congratulations also on your designation as the 2021 person of the year by the Saint Kitts and Nevis Observer.

I further commend the Government of Saint Kitts and Nevis for putting forward the timely theme of resilience during its tenure as Chair of the Permanent Council over the next three months. The unprecedented global crisis posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing threat of natural disasters have given our region reason for pause and have accelerated the need to reflect on our resilience building agenda—what it means concretely and how best to evaluate the resilience of the countries of this region, as we work towards our recovery.

I believe that this recalibration of what it means to build resilient societies must have “people” at the center. Our citizens must be the priority of our decision-making as we rebuild our societies in the post-COVID-19 era. For too long, far too many have been left behind and the pandemic has laid bare this reality. This is the moment when our region and its leaders must recommit to ending inequality once and for all.

I am equally convinced that our resilience-building agenda begins with strong and effective governance and public institutions operating with the highest standards of transparency and accountability. To this end, I strongly believe that every policy must be viewed through the lens of resilience. How can we properly measure the costs and benefits of public policies? How can these policies best prepare a country for future shocks such as a pandemic or increasing and recurring natural disasters?

Prime Minister, I committed to work with our Caribbean member states on their resilience building agenda and today I re-affirm that commitment. For many of our member states with high levels of indebtedness, building economic resilience means reducing high debt burdens and high debt to GDP ratios. This requires comprehensive external debt relief. This is critical for combating poverty and spurring economic growth, and more urgently, to help the countries of our region confront the threat of climate change. Our member states too often face the choice of either investing scarce development dollars in essentials such as education, health care, and climate action or servicing their debt. If we are to truly set a path towards attaining economic resilience this critical issue must be addressed. I intend to continue to lend my voice to the many who are calling for urgent action in this area.

For your country, like others in the Caribbean, climate change poses an existential threat with rising sea levels, coastal erosion and natural disasters of greater frequency and intensity. I take this opportunity to recognize your leadership in this area and your announcement at the recently held COP 26 of reducing economy-wide CO2 emissions by 61 percent by 2030 with a proposal to achieve this target by switching to 100 percent renewable energy in electricity generation and the decarbonization of the transportation sector. This ambitious goal will no doubt require financing and partnerships from all sectors. I pledge the OAS’ continued support in helping to shape policies, programs, and partnerships to propel progress in this area.

In February, the OAS will convene the Ministers of Energy of the region together with the private sector within the context of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas to continue to advance our work in this regard. Going forward, the OAS will expand our work in innovation and technology to include training and capacity building on climate related skills through the recently launched Youth Academy on Transformative Technologies, as well as our ongoing Human Development Programs. In 2022 we will accelerate our work to strengthen post-disaster business continuity in the tourism sector in partnership with the Caribbean Tourism Organization, the Caribbean Hotel Tourism Association, the University of the West Indies, and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency.

In our quest to ensure inclusive economic recovery, the OAS will begin a new project in the countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) on Women’s Economic Empowerment geared towards advancing women’s participation in the growing virtual economy, which will support your Government’s diligent efforts to promote women’s autonomy and gender equality. These are just some of the ways in which, the OAS intends to work with your Government to help build resilience to future shocks.

In closing, I again express my deep appreciation for the ongoing friendship between Saint Kitts and Nevis and the member states of the OAS. At this critical time in history, international cooperation is more important than ever. The need to secure strategic cooperation that can ensure win-win solutions to our common challenges is fundamental to our recovery. Your presence here today signals your country’s commitment to multilateral cooperation and collaboration. We thank you for taking the time to be with us today and we look forward to joining hands with you in ensuring that as we recover from this pandemic, every citizen is afforded the opportunity to realize their full potential, understanding that governing, governance, and resilience is about our people.

El PRESIDENTE: Thank you, Secretary General.

Alocución del excelentísimo doctor Timothy Sylvester Harris, Primer Ministro de la Federación de Saint Kitts y Nevis

El PRESIDENTE: Honorable Prime Minister of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, His Excellency Dr. the Honorable Timothy Sylvester Harris, on behalf of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), I wish to extend to you a warm welcome to this OAS body, which, in this virtual age, may still be considered as a house of the Americas, the main forum for political dialogue in our Hemisphere.

Doctor the Honorable Timothy Sylvester Harris was born in Tabernacle, Saint Kitts. He is the third Prime Minister of the Federation in the twin island state of Saint Kitts and Nevis, the latter, of Nevis, my own place of origin, being the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the United States Treasury, and who played a very important role in the establishment of the United States Constitution.

Before his meteoric rise to the Office of the Prime Minister, Dr. Harris served in almost every ministerial portfolio that has existed in the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. In 1988, the Honorable Prime Minister graduated from the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies with a Bachelor of Science degree with first class honors in Accounting. He was the only graduate of the Bachelor of Science Accounting Program to obtain the distinction. He also received the Victor Crook Prize for the best accounting student in that year. In the period of 1990 to 1992, he pursued his Master of Science degree in Accounting at the St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies, located in Trinidad. There, he graduated at the top of his class with a Master’s of Science degree, with a distinction in Accounting. In the year 2001, Prime Minister Harris successfully defended his PhD dissertation at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Administration, majoring in Accounting.

In his political career, the Honorable Prime Minister participated in a number of electoral political events, and in 1993, he won his seat in the Saint Kitts and Nevis Labor Party ticket, and in each parliamentary election held in the following years: 1995, the years 2000, the year 2004, and the year 2010, he earned the distinction of winning the award for being the best candidate in those particular years. That sequence of years is a most impressive sequence of successive political achievements.

During his tenure with the Saint Kitts and Nevis Labor Party, he served in several cabinet positions. He has served as the Minister of Agriculture, Land, and Housing; the Minister of Education, Labor, and Social Security; the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Education; and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade, Industry, and Commerce. In the year 2013, Prime Minister Harris formed a new political party, The People’s Labor Party, and on February 18, 2015, he became the third Prime Minister of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Today, the Prime Minister honors us with his presence as the representative of a country, albeit small in size, as the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere, has a proud record of punching above its weight class in several spheres of human endeavor while maintaining a proud and noteworthy track record of good governance, democratic stability, and socioeconomic development. The Honorable Prime Minister has worked with dogged determination in advancing the topics of importance to the Caribbean region and the broader OAS community. The Honorable Prime Minister, we thank you, and appreciate your visiting us at the OAS today.

It is now my great honor and privilege to offer the floor to the Honorable Prime Minister of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, His Excellency Dr. Timothy Sylvester Harris.

Honorable Prime Minister, the floor is yours.

El PRIMER MINISTRO DE SAINT KITTS Y NEVIS: Thank you very much, excellency, distinguished Chair of the Permanent Council, and of course, the Permanent Representative of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Allow me to say thank you for your kind words of introduction and to recognize the distinguished personalities—in particular, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), His Excellency, Luis Almagro Lemes; the Assistant Secretary General, Your Excellency, Nestor Mendez; our own Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honorable Mark Brantley; Vice Chair of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Lou-Anne Gaylene Gilchrist; distinguished permanent and alternate representatives, and, of course, permanent observers; ladies and gentlemen, good morning, buenos días. It is an honor and a pleasure to be with you here this morning.

Allow me, at the onset, to congratulate Ambassador Everson Hull, the Permanent Representative of Saint Kitts and Nevis, on his recent assumption as Chair of this distinguished Permanent Council. Ambassador Hull, I know that you will work hard for the good of the entire Organization of American States and you will do your country proud as you lead this Permanent Council for the first quarter of 2022. My very best wishes to you on behalf of the grateful nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

I am particularly honored to be able to address the Permanent Council of the OAS on the theme of resilience and sustainability for development. Could there be a more important theme for us all at this point as we continue to confront the health, social, and economic challenges caused by the onslaught of COVID-19 and the continuing existential threat of climate change? I join you today to underline my country’s unwavering commitment to the OAS and the role it continues to play in seeking solutions to the socioeconomic challenges which confront our Hemisphere. And I want to use this opportunity to extend my country’s profound gratitude to our hemispheric partners who, in the spirit of regional cooperation, solidarity, and generosity, have offered various types of assistance to help build resilience in my homeland and in the wider Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and indeed, across our Hemisphere, during the nearly two years that we have been struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic.

I thank the member states of the Caribbean for their own donations of vaccines; the United States of America for the field hospitals it has provided to us and the Pfizer vaccines provided, among other resources; Mexico and Argentina, for their offers of vaccines; Canada, for the donation of personal protective equipment; Colombia, for supporting the improvement to port safety at this difficult time of air travel; and all other OAS partners, who have contributed to the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility and other multilateral mechanisms. Certainly, it is only by working together, as we have been doing, that we can defeat the virus, reenergize our economies, and put our people back to work, thereby securing the prosperity for the people of the Americas.

Although no longer a member of the OAS, it would be remiss of me not to mention the contribution of Cuba to our region, with the deployment of its medical brigade, supporting the work of medical and health practitioners across the Americas. We owe them a debt of gratitude for their unwavering support to many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean despite their own prevailing socioeconomic challenges.

As the lead head of government on health matters in the quasi-cabinet of CARICOM, I applaud the herculean efforts of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) in mobilizing resources to address the health challenges of COVID-19 and for their invaluable support to our health professionals across the Hemisphere. The recent surge in infections, in hospitalizations, deaths, and the prevailing vaccine hesitancy across the Hemisphere remain matters of grave concern. More broadly, the World Health Organization (WHO) has put vaccine hesitancy as one of the top threats to public health globally.

As we continue to battle with new variants, it is important that we come together as a family of Western hemispheric sovereign states, bound together in a spirit of brotherly love as we redouble our collaborative efforts to strengthen our economies so that we can adequately meet the challenges of increasing global health threats and be better able to safeguard our region.

Excellencies, the past two years have been particularly difficult for our people across the Hemisphere as the convergence of crises has generated unprecedented shocks to our lives and livelihoods, and simultaneously thwarted our growth and development agenda. For the fragile economies of our CARICOM region, we are also confronted with the devastating effects of climate change, limited access to concessionary financing, de-risking of correspondent banking services, the escalating cost of food and commodities, ongoing supply chain issues.

This pandemic has undoubtedly exposed the weaknesses of our global health and socioeconomic architecture, and it further underscores that our countries cannot operate as if it were business as usual. We must take collective and decisive action now to build more resilient and sustainable economies for future generations.

For Small Island Developing States striving to coexist with the virus while protecting our already fragile economies, there are four facets of resilience that merit consideration in the pursuit of a robust and sustainable recovery. These, in my view, are economic resilience, environmental resilience, social resilience, and disaster resilience. Although we often conveniently find it necessary to identify resilience as a national mission or objective, it is by no means sufficient. There are no historical units of measure that allow us to know how resilient we were 40 years ago, how resilient we are today, and the level of resilience that we aspire to achieve five to 10 years into the future. Indeed, there is no acceptable composite index of resilience. But all is not lost.

There are readily available and universally accepted underlying forces that are measurable, that can be monitored carefully, to assess our vulnerability to exogenous forces. If we fail to recognize the significance of these forces, and if we fail to develop and put in place performance measures that monitor our progress, we will likely find ourselves in the same place that we were 20 or 30 years ago, with unacceptably high rates of unemployment, low rates of income and growth, and attendant high rates of poverty in the Hemisphere, propelling a massive human capital flight as our best and brightest heads head for the exits, in search of better alternative opportunities, or the so-called “greener pastures.”

Economic resilience, in my view, can be improved through expansionary monetary and fiscal policies, and we have seen some of this happening in the United States of America, in Europe, and elsewhere. In my experience and the experience of Saint Kitts and Nevis, lower personal and cooperate tax rates, lower interest rates, lower debt-to-GDP ratios, and increased levels of foreign direct investments are critical to our economic development and indeed, our economic resilience. We have also found that those policies and measures are disproportionately positive for the least wealthy among us—that is, these policies and measures are disproportionately negative for the least wealthy among us. Propelling the entire country forward together, we have, in a manner of speaking, to adopt the slogan of the OAS: “More rights for more people,” while offering performance measures that allow us to evaluate our economic performance and resilience.

The Chair—our Ambassador and Permanent Representative—gave a review of the standing of Saint Kitts and Nevis which allowed me, as a Prime Minister of this, my beloved country, to report that Saint Kitts and Nevis has performed well on a number of economic performance score cards that we monitor closely. The World Bank data for 2019, for example, show that setting aside the United States of America and Canada, which are not in our peer group, Saint Kitts and Nevis ranked third among the remaining 32 OAS sovereign states in per capita GDP. Only The Bahamas and Panama were higher. Recent data show that Saint Kitts and Nevis received the number one global ranking for its innovative Citizenship by Investment Program in 2021.

The country has also demonstrated a capacity for living within its means by reeling in our debt load from a high of 186 percent debt-to-GDP in 2010 to about 40,6 percent before COVID-19 struck in 2020. Its current account surplus has allowed us to offer a generous package of benefit to workers who are being displaced as a consequence of the global pandemic, and we did so without having to seek the assistance of the World Bank and IMF as some other countries have needed to do. Indeed, the distinguished Secretary General made reference to an IMF report which indicated that Saint Kitts and Nevis entered the pandemic with the strongest reserves within the Hemisphere. That is no mean achievement for the smallest democratic country in the Hemisphere.

In terms of our innovative Citizenship Program, which was introduced in 1984 as part of our vision of creating a new pathway for growth and development and to bring additional resources within Saint Kitts and Nevis—resources of people, resources of finances—to help with our development, we are pleased with the historic record number of member states, within the Hemisphere and beyond, that have provided visa-free agreements with Saint Kitts and Nevis. As it stands now, Saint Kitts and Nevis, our citizens, can now experience hassle-free travel to over 161 countries worldwide, including major business hubs in Asia, in Europe, in Africa, and others with which we have achieved bilateral relationships. This is an important indicator of our partnership, of our involvement, and of the respect which the international community holds for Saint Kitts and Nevis.

We did not arrive at this stage of development by accident. We have suffered through episodes of difficult times: hurricanes, for example. And we also had the scenario of a debt ratio of 186 percent of our GDP. At that time, it was the third highest in the world, crowding out access to funding in support of the least wealthy and the most vulnerable among us because of the high cost of funding that public debt. We made a commitment to live within our means, and in 2015 when my government took office for the first time, we made a deep commitment to escape the low-income levels in which our people have been trapped—by announcing a strong commitment to the pursuit of democracy for all our citizens and residents.

I am proud, as the leader of this country, to report that our small nation has been holding its own with respect to the dominant pillars on which this Organization proudly stands. With respect to the pursuit of democracy, and recall 2011, when the Democratic Charter was signed on. The World Bank data for 2020 show that Saint Kitts and Nevis is among the top 10 OAS member states that are not burdened by corruption; it holds the ranking of nine, among all 34 member states of the OAS. With respect to political stability, which can play utter havoc with our democracy and development, Saint Kitts and Nevis is ranked sixth among the 34 OAS member states; and with respect to what the World Bank defines as “Voice and Accountability,” Saint Kitts and Nevis is ranked fourth among our member states, indicating that here, in my beloved country, there is a healthy respect for contrasting points of view expressed by the opposing political side. Democracy has been at the heart of the work of the OAS, and we are heartened that we are in excellent standing in that particular indicator. In the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, Saint Kitts and Nevis has been among the top performers within the OAS and CARICOM.

I want to return to the theme of climate change and again to ask that we do not allow the passionate plea from my fellow CARICOM Heads of Government at the recently concluded COP26 to fall on deaf ears. Let it challenge all of us to make a difference, through our own daily efforts, creating a safer environment to live and prosper. Climate change stymies our economic development and gives rise to migration issues and other related challenges.

Climate change, which, the Secretary General reminded us, represents an existential threat to all of us, but more particularly, small island states, is destroying the conditions for life and wellbeing with record heat, worsening hurricanes, floods, and sea level rises. Some have argued that climate change is a bigger challenge than COVID-19. We must work assiduously to fulfill our pledges to adapt to and mitigate its effects, including more resilient health facilities. And here, I take the opportunity to commend the PAHO Smart Hospital Program as best in adaptation.

Finally, in conclusion, poverty, transnational crime, inequality, social exclusion, all are exacerbated by the pandemic, and they are threats to the democracies of the OAS. As the OAS works towards renewal in our region, we need to address these multidimensional challenges with a multidimensional approach. This requires an Organization of American States that is adaptable and fit for purpose.

I thank you.

El PRESIDENTE: Prime Minister, we thank you for visiting with us, and sharing those most inspiring words. Your emphasis on performance would not be lost on most of us, because we think that it is very important, as you noted earlier, to essentially know where you came from, where you are today, and where you aspire to be. That matters a great deal, and the only way that you can really get a handle on that is to evaluate it using numerical magnitudes to evaluate those changes. So, those words would serve to inspire and motivate us as we seek, during this pandemic episode, to wrestle with the challenges and obstacles that stand in our path. For this, we are eternally grateful.

Distinguished representatives, this protocolary meeting is hereby adjourned. I thank each and every one of you for participating. The meeting is adjourned.

Thank you very much.

[Se levanta la sesión a las 10:41 a.m.]

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