Political Scientist Professor Hamid Ghany says Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has been “vindicated” by Trinidad and Tobago’s overwhelming election to the United Nations Security Council.
Speaking with TTT News, Dr. Ghany described Wednesday’s result as a proud and historic achievement, saying the 181-vote mandate reflects the confidence the international community has placed in Trinidad and Tobago.
“I think what makes this quite significant is the headwinds that the government faced late last year when Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar was very firm in her position with regard to the US military build-up in the southern Caribbean Sea and also her position on Venezuela. And I think that the Caribbean Media Corporation and a number of other local, regional, and diasporic commentators all berated her for the position that she adopted, and they said directly to her that she was jeopardising Trinidad and Tobago’s opportunity to be elected to the Security Council. And this was being widely peddled late last year, and I think what has happened now is that she has been vindicated with 181 votes out of 191.”
From January 2027, Trinidad and Tobago will assume the non-permanent seat for Latin America and the Caribbean, succeeding Panama on the Security Council.
Professor Ghany said the overwhelming vote sends a strong message about Trinidad and Tobago’s place in the international community, with all five permanent members — the United Kingdom, the United States, China, France, and Russia — voting for T&T as a representative from the Latin America-Caribbean region.
He said securing more than two-thirds of the required votes should be a “proud moment.”
“If you look at the Western European and other categories, there were three countries, and Portugal got 134 votes, Austria got 131 votes, and you had to get 127 to qualify, and unfortunately Germany got 104, so Germany didn’t make the cut. And then in Asia-Pacific, Kyrgyzstan came through in the end, but it took four ballots to resolve it because the Philippines were in contention, and they had to be able to get the required number of votes, and Kyrgyzstan eventually prevailed. So it’s not a straightforward thing, and I don’t think that the fact that we were unopposed in terms of nomination from this region means that it was a cut-and-dried case. We had to get more than two-thirds. We had to cross 122 votes in our particular case, and if we didn’t, it would have opened the door to other developments. So I think that it’s something that we need to take note of, and I think it’s a proud moment.”
Professor Ghany says T&T’s profile will rise on the international stage:
“Being one of the 15 countries for the next two years puts us in a position to exert a fair measure of influence diplomatically on the world stage by being a member of the United Nations Security Council. So it’s a very coveted position. It’s one that has been hard-earned and earned in the face of some severe headwinds that was trying to suggest that we wouldn’t make it because of the positions that we have adopted on the international stage. And I think that, in the end, the Prime Minister was vindicated. She took a great risk. This was a great risk that she took. But she stood on a principled position and she stood firm. And this is the end result.”
