Economists not optimistic about T&T’s UNSC seat

Raphael John-Lall

While T&T’s Gov­ern­ment is con­fi­dent that its role as a non-per­ma­nent mem­ber on the UN Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil (UN­SC) from 2027 to 2028 will have a pos­i­tive eco­nom­ic and de­vel­op­men­tal im­pact on the coun­try, lo­cal econ­o­mists are not sure what the di­rect ben­e­fits will be.

Guardian Me­dia re­port­ed that for the sec­ond time in this na­tion’s his­to­ry, T&T will have a seat at the Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil. On Wednes­day at the Unit­ed Na­tions’ head­quar­ters in New York, T&T was elect­ed as a non-per­ma­nent mem­ber for the 2027-2028 term.

T&T re­ceived 181 votes out of 191 coun­tries. Nine coun­tries ab­stained. T&T on­ly need­ed 122 votes to se­cure vic­to­ry. T&T had pre­vi­ous­ly served a two-year term as a non-per­ma­nent mem­ber 40 years ago, span­ning 1985 to 1986.

T&T’s close com­mer­cial and po­lit­i­cal al­lies quick­ly con­grat­u­lat­ed the Gov­ern­ment.

In­dia’s For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr S. Jais­hankar who was in T&T a few weeks ago con­grat­u­lat­ed T&T’s Gov­ern­ment on his X ac­count on Thurs­day send­ing greet­ings to Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Sean Sobers.

The Unit­ed Na­tions post­ed the news of T&T’s big step on its web­site.

In a news re­lease on Thurs­day, Min­is­ter of Plan­ning, Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs and De­vel­op­ment, Kennedy Swarats­ingh, said while mem­ber­ship of the Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil is of­ten viewed through the lens of diplo­ma­cy and in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions, it al­so car­ries pro­found im­pli­ca­tions for eco­nom­ic and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

He said in to­day’s in­ter­con­nect­ed world, peace, se­cu­ri­ty, eco­nom­ic growth and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment are in­sep­a­ra­ble and T&T’s pres­ence on the UN Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil will pro­vide the coun­try with an un­prece­dent­ed plat­form that con­tributes to shap­ing glob­al poli­cies af­fect­ing small is­land de­vel­op­ing states and de­vel­op­ing economies.

“As a mem­ber of the Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, Trinidad and To­ba­go will be bet­ter po­si­tioned to ad­vo­cate for in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion on is­sues that im­pact our re­gion, in­clud­ing crime and se­cu­ri­ty, cli­mate re­silience, tech­no­log­i­cal ad­vance­ment, eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty and so­cial in­clu­sion. This en­hanced glob­al pro­file can fa­cil­i­tate stronger diplo­mat­ic part­ner­ships, at­tract greater in­ter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion and in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties and sup­port our ef­forts to achieve long-term sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment goals,” he said.

He added that, im­por­tant­ly, T&T’s pri­or­i­ties—curb­ing the il­lic­it traf­fick­ing of small arms and light weapons, ad­vanc­ing the pro­tec­tion of women and chil­dren in peace and se­cu­ri­ty frame­works and ad­dress­ing the emerg­ing chal­lenges and op­por­tu­ni­ties as­so­ci­at­ed with ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence and glob­al se­cu­ri­ty—align close­ly with its na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment ob­jec­tives. These pri­or­i­ties speak di­rect­ly to build­ing safer com­mu­ni­ties, strength­en­ing so­cial re­silience, fos­ter­ing in­no­va­tion and cre­at­ing an en­vi­ron­ment that sup­ports sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic growth and hu­man de­vel­op­ment.

Po­ten­tial deals

Econ­o­mist Dr Ronald Ramkissoon told Sun­day Busi­ness Guardian that while there will be no di­rect eco­nom­ic im­pact, the coun­try can use the plat­form to build in­ter­na­tion­al ties that can lead to po­ten­tial in­vest­ment deals.

“Nev­er­the­less, T&T can take pride in the fact that this small twin-is­land Re­pub­lic has, over the years, de­vel­oped some cred­i­bil­i­ty in the eyes of some 181 coun­tries. This elec­tion to a seat on the Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil gives us some chance to help shape glob­al pol­i­cy es­pe­cial­ly as it af­fects small states in the Caribbean and else­where.”

How­ev­er, he not­ed that there are no clear and di­rect eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits tied to this po­si­tion.

“The plat­form al­lows us to net­work and use­ful­ly en­gage oth­er coun­tries in the pro­mo­tion of such con­di­tions which are more con­ducive to in­vest­ment, em­ploy­ment and eco­nom­ic growth and less fa­cil­i­ta­tive of con­flicts and wars. It gives us a chance, in an im­por­tant glob­al or­gan­i­sa­tion, to voice our po­si­tion on im­por­tant is­sues such as ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence and the im­pact of cli­mate change on is­land economies.”

He then asked, “So as a mem­ber of the Coun­cil what will we make of it? If we can make some dif­fer­ence, what will that be? Will the po­si­tion over­whelm us, or will we make some head­way in the di­rec­tion of greater peace, se­cu­ri­ty and fair­ness? I wish us the best.”

He said the UN Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil is one of the six ma­jor arms of the UN.

“Its func­tions are spelt out in the UN Char­ter which in­cludes the main­te­nance of in­ter­na­tion­al peace and se­cu­ri­ty, the de­vel­op­ment of friend­ly re­la­tions among na­tions, and co­op­er­a­tion in solv­ing in­ter­na­tion­al prob­lems.”

He added that un­for­tu­nate­ly, though, when the glob­al pop­u­la­tion looks around the world to­day, they see for ex­am­ple, may­hem and suf­fer­ing in the Mid­dle East, Ukraine, Haiti and else­where.

“Much of this is the re­sult of ac­tions and in­ac­tions of the very mem­bers of the UN­SC them­selves. This stark re­al­i­ty serves to weak­en hope and con­fi­dence that that ex­treme­ly im­por­tant world body is up to the task as­signed to it.”

A for­mer min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance Mar­i­ano Browne told the Busi­ness Guardian this is the first time the coun­try has re­turned to the Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil since its 1985–1986 tenure 40 years ago.

“It omits oth­er press­ing con­cerns like what about Small is­land De­vel­op­ing States (SIDS) and cli­mate change? What about SIDS in the mul­ti­lat­er­al in­sti­tu­tions? T&T has pledged to use this plat­form to cham­pi­on three key glob­al chal­lenges: the women, peace and se­cu­ri­ty agen­da. Al­so, com­bat­ing the il­lic­it traf­fick­ing of small arms and light weapons. Third­ly, the im­pli­ca­tions of Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence for glob­al se­cu­ri­ty.”

Great pow­er in­flu­ence

Ac­cord­ing to an aca­d­e­m­ic pa­per pub­lished in 2009 by the Jour­nal of De­vel­op­ment Eco­nom­ics, a bi-month­ly peer-re­viewed aca­d­e­m­ic jour­nal pub­lished by Dutch aca­d­e­m­ic pub­lish­ing com­pa­ny El­se­vi­er, small coun­tries who serve their term on the UN Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil can ben­e­fit eco­nom­i­cal­ly but on­ly when they car­ry out the wish­es giv­en by more pow­er­ful coun­tries.

It was au­thored by Eu­ro­pean econ­o­mists Ax­el Dreher, Jan-Eg­bert Sturm and James Ray­mond Vree­land.

“Our re­sults con­tribute to the grow­ing lit­er­a­ture show­ing that in­ter­na­tion­al fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions have been em­ployed as a tool of for­eign pol­i­cy by their ma­jor share­hold­ers. Whether used to bribe or re­ward, the World Bank’s projects have been fun­nelled to po­lit­i­cal­ly im­por­tant de­vel­op­ing coun­tries, such as those serv­ing a term on the UN Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil,” the au­thors of the pa­per stat­ed.

Econ­o­mist Dr Vanus James told the Busi­ness Guardian that, in a prac­ti­cal way, he does not see T&T mak­ing any sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion in its role on the Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil and by ex­ten­sion he does not see how it will help solve T&T’s de­vel­op­men­tal chal­lenges.

“The Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil is dom­i­nat­ed by the five ve­toes (from the per­ma­nent mem­bers). I see no room for much else on the mat­ters it is re­spon­si­ble for. T&T would just be mak­ing up num­bers. Those mat­ters have lit­tle to do with the chal­lenges of eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment we face,” he said.

He said he did not want to say more on the top­ic but he raised sev­er­al ques­tions.

“Will T&T push its own agen­da or will it fol­low the US? If it will, is that agen­da a na­tion­al se­cret? What does the record of the Gov­ern­ment say?”