🇹🇹Kamla Persad-BissessarTrinidad and Tobago · UNGA 81 speech

Thank you very much, Mister President. I'm honored to again address this august chamber at this 81st session of the UN General Assembly. On behalf of the government and people of Trinidad and Tobago, I extend warmest congratulations to you on your election to the presidency. Permit me to extend also our appreciation to your predecessor, Her Excellency, Mayor Baak of Germany, for astute leadership in guiding our work in the previous session. Mr. President, this year, the theme chosen is a very apt one, that being restoring trust, managing transformation, and United Nations that delivers for all speaks directly to the challenges confronting the community today. And looking forward to restoring trust in the UN, we must understand we depend largely on the organization's ability to respond effectively to the needs of the entire global community. At a time when we should be strengthening partnerships, through mutual respect and cooperation, confidence in international institutions is under strain. For small developing states such as ours, trust depends on institutions applying agreed rules consistently, honouring commitments, and ensuring that those most affected by decisions have a meaningful voice in shaping them. Transnational organized crime, continues to pose a serious threat to the security and development of small island states. Small states face serious challenges from sophisticated criminal networks that move people, that move weapons, that move narcotics, and illicit finance across national borders. For Trinidad and Tobago, this is not an abstract threat. These networks directly endanger our citizens, they endanger our institutions, and they endanger our development. Restoring trust and managing transformation, therefore, must ultimately be about results. Ideally, the transformation that is required involves a United Nations that is responsive, that is effective and capable of making tangible differences to the safety, security, and well-being of people. Since my government was elected to office in 2025, we have pursued a people-centered agenda focused on safer communities, productive investment, modern public services, and expanded opportunity. A central part of our agenda has been restoring security to our communities. To this end, we have strengthened cooperative efforts with the United States and other partners to dismantle criminal syndicates that have wreaked havoc across our country and across our region. This is why we have profound gratitude to President Trump for his invitation to Trinidad and Tobago earliest year to be part of the newly formed shield of the Americas and America's counter cartel coalition. Remain confident that this partnership will continue to promote freedom, security, and prosperity in our region. Trinidad Tobago appreciates and recognizes the responsibility bestowed on the Security Council. In this regard, we extend our deepest appreciation to the 181 Member States that entrusted Trinidad and Tobago with the responsibility of serving on the Security Council for 2027-2028. Can we say thank you to all 181 States? We regard that overwhelming expression of confidence not simply as an achievement, but we see it as a very solemn responsibility on the part of Trinidad and Tobago. We return to the council for only the second time in the history of our nation. And this is for the first time in more than four decades. We will carry to the council the commitment on which we sought your support. We did so and we committed to building consensus for realization of sustainable peace and security. The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago intends to bring the perspective and experience of a small island developing state to the council. Whilst remain guided by the UN Charter by international law and the principle of the peaceful settlement of disputes. We will bring those principles to every matter before the council. whether the crisis lies within our region or far beyond it. We will approach our tenure with an independent and practical outlook, working constructively with all members of the Council and seeking common ground wherever possible. We intend to place particular emphasis on the curbing of the illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons. Another pillar on which we had campaigned and we intend to commit to is women and children, as well as peace and security. And then we had talked about artificial intelligence and global security. Today, I want to agree with President Trump that we are now talking about a call for practical AI to be renamed super intelligence, SI. We commit to that. Mr. President. The illicit flow of firearms and narcotics is a major security concern for Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean. Although the region doesn't manufacture these weapons, the availability fuels gun violence, organized crime, drug trafficking, and loss of life across our societies. While serving on the council, Trinidad and Tobago will advocate for greater international cooperation to address the sources, movement and diversion of illicit weapons, stronger tracing mechanisms, information sharing, border and maritime cooperation, and deeper cooperation among source, transit and destination countries to disrupt weapons, narcotics and illicit financial flows. Shrinanta Bager will bring the experience of the Caribbean to the Council, where the impact of illicit farms demonstrates how transnational organized crime can threaten the security and stability of states, even in the absence of traditional armed conflict. On the priority area of superintelligence and global security, Shrinanta Bager will encourage a greater consideration of the implications of SI and emerging technologies for international peace and security, including cyber attacks, disinformation and deepfakes, autonomous weapons, criminal misuse of AI, and threats to critical infrastructure. We acknowledge that these technologies can support conflict prevention, early warning, peacekeeping, and protection of civilians. Trinidad and Tobago will advocate for an approach that safeguards international security without closing off innovation, development, and opportunity, and that ensures developing countries have a meaningful role in shaping the rules for this new technological era. Mr. President, the situation in Haiti remains of particular concern, not just for us in the region, but, I think, across the world. Trinidad and Tobago stands in full support of international efforts to help restore security and stability in Haiti whilst maintaining that the country's political future must ultimately be Haitian-led and Haitian-owned. Security assistance is necessary, but lasting stability will also require functioning institutions, economic opportunities, and a credible political process. So therefore, Therefore, as Trinidad and Tobago prepares to serve on the Security Council, we will continue to bring attention to Haiti and to the wider security concerns of the Caribbean, whilst working with CARICOM and other international partners towards practical and sustainable solutions. Mr. President, managing transformation must also mean ensuring that developing developing countries are not simply expected to adjust the changes decided or developed elsewhere. Whether in technology and SI, super intelligence, a global economy, or energy development countries must have the opportunity and the capacity to help in shaping those changes. Trinidad and Tobago brings a distinctive perspective as we understand that Affordability and economic development must advance together. For us in Trinidad and Tobago, progress cannot be measured only by how quickly the world changes, but it must also be in terms of who benefits from that change. Consequently, the transformation should create greater opportunity, strengthen security, and support development. rather than deepen inequality, indebtedness or dependence. Restoring trust in the United Nations will depend on its ability to deliver on the commitments already made and to demonstrate that multilateralism can make a meaningful difference in the lives of people. Mr. President, the Secretary-General's UN80 initiative to make the organisation more efficient and better equipped for the future is necessary and timely. Indeed, today, as we listened to President Trump, the Honourable President shared with us some of the initiatives for reform that was taking place and will take place here at the UN. Reform should reduce duplication, strengthen accountability, retire mandates that no longer serve their purpose, and direct scarce resources towards measurable results. At the same time, reform should preserve the organization's ability to deliver across its three pillars of peace and security, development and human rights, and should not make it more difficult for small states to participate meaningfully in its work. Mr. President, as the UN begins its search for its next Secretary-General, I take this opportunity to convey our deepest appreciation to His Excellency Antonio Guterres, whose term as the ninth Secretary-General of the UN concludes at the end of this year. Secretary-General Guterres will be well remembered for leading this organization through a period of extraordinary global strain, and for advancing important initiatives on UN reform, climate change, superintelligence and the risks posed by nuclear weapons. We also recognise some of the important initiatives advanced during his tenure, including the UN 80 Initiative efforts to achieve greater gender parity in senior UN leadership positions, and his efforts to bring superintelligence and the risks posed by nuclear weapons more firmly into the international agenda. Mr. President, as I close, I say that Trinidad and Tobago's longstanding commitment to multilateralism and the United Nations has been anchored in delivering results and adding value to the lives of citizens everywhere. As we chart our way forward, it is important for us all to remember that trust must be earned and build on the principles of mutual respect and cooperation. The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is prepared to play its role and part to rebuild a United Nations that delivers for all. Mr. President, I thank you and may God continue to bless each and every one of you. Thank you very much.