St Vincent PM Godwin Friday defends multilateralism in maiden UN General Assembly address
Friday called for Security Council reform, backed Guyana's Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett for Secretary-General and pressed on climate finance, Haiti and reparations.
NEW YORK, United States. St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Godwin Friday has reaffirmed his country's commitment to multilateralism, telling the UN General Assembly that the world needs the United Nations more than ever despite claims that the system is "broken".
"We are a small, democratic, multi-island Caribbean nation committed to multilateralism and the peaceful resolution of disputes," Friday said in his maiden address on Friday, September 25.
"We will not let vulnerability define us or limit our ambitions," he said. "We come to this Assembly not as mere petitioners but as partners."
Reform and a woman Secretary-General
Friday said the UN's governance model, designed in 1945, cannot adequately address today's challenges, and called for Security Council reform "to include a permanent member from the continent of Africa".
He said St Vincent and the Grenadines joins other CARICOM members in endorsing Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana for Secretary-General. "After eight decades, surely the time has come for an equally capable woman to be Secretary-General," he said.
Climate and finance
Recalling Hurricane Beryl in July 2024, Friday said climate change was "a present danger and recurring financial emergency" for small island states.
"We cannot continue to walk up the down escalator, pretending it is development," he said, calling for full operationalisation of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index and support for the Bridgetown Initiative.
Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba
Friday urged that the territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana be resolved peacefully under international law. He called Haiti "our urgent concern" and urged action on arms trafficking. "We don't make these weapons in the Caribbean," he said.
He added his government's voice to calls to end the US embargo on Cuba, and renewed support for Taiwan's "meaningful participation" in the UN system, noting 45 years of diplomatic ties.
He also called for an immediate end to the war in Ukraine and a permanent ceasefire in the Middle East with a two-state solution.
Reparations
Friday backed CARICOM's 10-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice, welcoming a UN resolution adopted in March 2026 declaring the trafficking and chattel enslavement of Africans "the Gravest Crime against Humanity".
"The past is not past when its consequences still shape who is rich and who is poor in the world today," he said, adding that further steps were expected at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda in November.
