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Monday, July 7, 2025

Browne calls for co-operation to combat illicit weapons

by

Gail Alexander
285 days ago
20240925
Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne delivers his statement at the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday.

Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne delivers his statement at the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday.

COURTESY: MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AND CARICOM AFFAIRS

The ease of ac­cess to il­le­gal firearms in the Caribbean con­tin­ues to harm its so­ci­eties with un­ac­cept­able con­se­quences. As such it is im­per­a­tive that there is bet­ter co-op­er­a­tion with­in and among na­tion­al, re­gion­al and glob­al stake­hold­ers to com­bat, pre­vent and erad­i­cate the il­lic­it weapons trade.

This was the mes­sage sent glob­al­ly by Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs and Cari­com Dr Amery Browne on Mon­day when he ad­dressed the 79th sum­mit of the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly. Browne is lead­ing T&T’s del­e­ga­tion to the UN­GA, now in its cur­rent week of High-Lev­el meet­ings.

Ad­dress­ing world lead­ers and coun­tries’ min­is­te­r­i­al rep­re­sen­ta­tives, Browne said that the con­ven­ing of the sum­mit is cru­cial to re­new glob­al sol­i­dar­i­ty to meet UN mem­bers’ ex­ist­ing com­mit­ments, take ad­van­tage of new op­por­tu­ni­ties, and ef­fec­tive­ly iden­ti­fy a clear path to ad­dress con­tem­po­rary chal­lenges.

“In our quest to achieve sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment, we must en­sure that all mem­ber states are on a lev­el play­ing field.

“Those who are in par­tic­u­lar­ly unique cir­cum­stances must be af­ford­ed the nec­es­sary sup­port through in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion in or­der to tru­ly en­sure that none are left be­hind. Ac­cord­ing­ly, we must not re­nege on our com­mit­ments to LD­Cs (least de­vel­oped coun­tries), LLD­Cs (land­locked de­vel­op­ing coun­tries) and SIDS (small is­land de­vel­op­ing states).

“There­fore, Trinidad and To­ba­go un­der­scores the im­por­tance of the re­form of the in­ter­na­tion­al fi­nan­cial ar­chi­tec­ture and em­pha­sizes that Of­fi­cial De­vel­op­ment As­sis­tance should be guid­ed by the mul­ti-di­men­sion­al vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty in­dex,” Browne said.

He added, “It is tru­ly re­gret­table that at this time, the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty is fail­ing at the main­te­nance of peace and se­cu­ri­ty glob­al­ly. The un­prece­dent­ed es­ca­la­tion in the num­ber and scale of con­flicts con­tra­dicts the very pur­pose for which the Unit­ed Na­tions was built.

“We must act bold­ly and de­ci­sive­ly to ef­fec­tive­ly bring an end to these con­flicts and achieve sus­tain­able peace for all.

“The ease of ac­cess to il­le­gal firearms in the Caribbean con­tin­ues to harm our so­ci­eties with un­ac­cept­able con­se­quences. In this con­text, it is im­per­a­tive that there is bet­ter co­op­er­a­tion with­in and amongst na­tion­al, re­gion­al and glob­al stake­hold­ers to com­bat, pre­vent and erad­i­cate the il­lic­it trade in small arms and light weapons.”

Browne told the UN­GA that Trinidad and To­ba­go recog­nis­es the role of sci­ence, tech­nol­o­gy and in­no­va­tion for this coun­try to achieve sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment.

“How­ev­er, as we progress in­to an era of high de­pen­dence on tech­nol­o­gy and rapid ad­vance­ments in ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence, we must al­so ac­knowl­edge the mag­ni­tude of the as­so­ci­at­ed risks. There­fore, as a small de­vel­op­ing State, we are not on­ly ad­vo­cat­ing for co­op­er­a­tion aimed at bridg­ing the dig­i­tal di­vide but al­so for strength­en­ing our ca­pac­i­ty in cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty to ad­dress those risks.

“Our young peo­ple are key stake­hold­ers in our pur­suit of sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment. Con­se­quent­ly, we must en­sure that they are equipped with the nec­es­sary tools and pro­vid­ed with the op­por­tu­ni­ties to reach their full po­ten­tial. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, our poli­cies and pro­grammes must in­clude pro­vi­sions to en­sure the well-be­ing of fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

“In this con­text, T&T re­mains unswerv­ing in our com­mit­ment to en­hanc­ing the qual­i­ty of life of our youth pop­u­la­tion, and that of fu­ture gen­er­a­tions,” Browne said.

He al­so re­mind­ed the UN of the words of this coun­try’s first prime min­is­ter.

“The fa­ther of our na­tion and first prime min­is­ter of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Dr Er­ic Williams in a state­ment in 1968, af­firmed that the cen­tral re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the UN is the main­te­nance of world peace, not on­ly through con­cil­i­a­tion and dis­cus­sion but al­so through the pro­mo­tion of hu­man de­vel­op­ment.

“His words are rel­e­vant even to­day, in re­mind­ing us of the im­por­tance of ful­fill­ing our oblig­a­tions as re­spon­si­ble mem­bers of our Unit­ed Na­tions,” said Browne.


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