BROWNE: KAMLA'S MESSED UP SPEECH

CCNTV6

A national statement under fire—Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's address at the United Nations General Assembly is drawing sharp criticism from a former Foreign Affairs Minister, who calls it a diplomatic misstep that breaks from tradition and weakens Trinidad and Tobago's regional standing. More in this report.

Transcript

00:00This was one of the worst national statements in recent history.

00:07A stinging diplomatic critique, former Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Dr. Amri Brown

00:13shares his reaction to the Prime Minister's recent address at the United Nations General Assembly.

00:20He says the speech broke sharply from diplomatic norms.

00:23What you would anticipate from a head of government at this, the highest opportunity in the diplomatic world

00:31would be to introduce or reintroduce your country, your society to the world.

00:39It's a precious opportunity to do exactly that.

00:41So when you look at the statement, you look at the quotations used and references used in past years

00:49and if you listen to Mia Motley and others, you'd hear references to local Calibsonians,

00:55historians, philosophers of your, poets of your society.

01:00Instead, Dr. Brown notes Prime Minister Kamala Pesad-Besasa referenced the U.S. president

01:06and an American ambassador while omitting key Caribbean priorities.

01:11He criticized what he described as poorly researched content

01:16and a misguided dismissal of the concept of a zone of peace.

01:21It really is unconscionable and unforgivable for a Prime Minister to go to this highest forum

01:29and to misconstrue and misstate and really denigrate such an important concept as a zone of peace.

01:39In her speech, she labeled it a false ideal.

01:42Then the Prime Minister went on to put it in the context of safety on the streets of any one member state

01:51such as Trinidad and Tobago.

01:52That is just a flagrant and total misunderstanding of what the zone of peace represents.

02:01This comes as Trinidad and Tobago begins its campaign endorsed by CARICOM under the PNM

02:08for a non-permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.

02:12This is to sit at the highest decision-making body in the globe, the Security Council.

02:20And the question to the Prime Minister, we got no sign really, no good sign from her national statement,

02:26what is the philosophy and perspective that Trinidad and Tobago, this little country,

02:34is going to take into the Security Council of the United Nations.

02:40That's a forum where major issues of peace and war and security are determined.

02:46The Prime Minister was further criticized for what some described as a detached and non-collaborative approach to CARICOM.

02:54The Prime Minister has detached and isolated this country from CARICOM at an alarming level,

03:03not attending the heads of government meeting, not attending with her colleagues at the CARICOM Africa summit,

03:10not sending the Minister of Agriculture to the Minister of Agriculture's CARICOM meeting in the last week,

03:18and in her statements downplaying the role of CARICOM and upplaying a sort of we are all on our own when it comes to regional security.

03:31The opposition also condemned the PM's failure to address global issues such as the genocide in Gaza,

03:38sanctions on Cuba and the Bridgetown initiative.

03:41Ravishit Tamari, Rupinarain, TV6 News.

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