Kenny Anthony and his Russian Gambit Foreign Policy Blog In recent weeks there has been much public discussion on the vote tendered by Saint Lucia on the Resolution Calling upon States Not to Recognize Changes in Status of the Crimea Region. In a vote overwhelmingly carried by countries that rejected the outcome of the Crimea referendum, a number of Caribbean countries viz., Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and Suriname elected to abstain from the vote. Of course, an abstention at the United Nations is not seen as a benign action but a positive exercise of state sovereignty with consequences for the establishment of international norms. Not unexpectedly, the vote has come in for some heavy criticism in the local media and from partisan quarters. In responding to concerns expressed, both the Minster of Foreign Affairs Hon. Alva Baptiste and Foreign Policy Advisor, Dr. Vaughn Lewis artfully addressed Saint Lucia’s posture on Crimea. The Minister likening the simmering discord between the Kremlin and Washington and her western European friends as a tussle between two ‘big brothers’. While the Advisor, dismissed the notion that an abstention bears a negative connotation, suggesting instead that abstaining simply suggests that a country is not sufficiently moved by either side of the argument to cast its lot with one of the contending parties. On the question of the resolution on Crimea, the Center for Advocacy in Public Policy (CAPP) is persuaded that the position of the government of Saint Lucia in this matter is a sound one, even while not submitting to the view that an ‘abstention’ is a benign instrument in a government’s foreign policy toolbox. To be sure, the abstaining CARICOM member states sent a signal to Washington that they will not be cowed into taking a Washington-centric position in a geostrategic dispute at the cost of potential leverage with Moscow. Indeed, by abstaining, Saint Lucia has sent a decisive message of intent to both sides. To Washington: ‘we will not blindly follow’. And to Moscow: ‘we are open for business’. In assessing Saint Lucia’s position, it should be recalled that at the height of the kerfuffle on Crimea, a new diplomatic envoy from Russia presented credentials to Dame Pearlette Louisy. In short order, this demarche was followed by the maiden Russian Caribbean Sailing Festival, with Rodney Bay playing host to over 100 well-heeled yachtsmen and a bevy of Russians, all potential investors. While there is no guarantee that the sailing event will return to Saint Lucia or that investment opportunities will materialise from this junket, a vote in favour of the resolution had the potential to undercut the fledging commercial and diplomatic relationship being nurtured between Castries and Moscow. In the context of an emerging multipolar world and with limited official development assistance (ODA) or foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into the Caribbean from traditional sources, an increasingly nuanced and agile foreign policy toolbox must be deployed in pursuit of our national interest. 09.04.2014
Posted on: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 06:02:05 +0000