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AMBASSADOR LA CELIA PRINCE: NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES TO THE OAS

  May 21, 2008


The government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has elevated an Alternate Representative to be that country’s new Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington.

Ambassador La Celia Prince delivered her credentials to Secretary General José Miguel Insulza during a ceremony at OAS headquarters Wednesday morning. She pledged to enhance her government’s involvement and to give the hemispheric organization even greater visibility with government circles in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Prince, who is also being designated as ambassador to the United States, pledged to continue her country’s close collaboration and deeper involvement in the inter-American system, as the government’s top diplomat at the OAS. She said her own government’s goals are in line with priority hemispheric agenda issues such as education, youth, employment and poverty alleviation, along with economic and social development, “so the synergy is good.” Ambassador Prince said she intends to work hard to ensure that the promotion of integral development is accorded “parity” in treatment alongside the other pillars of the hemispheric organization.

Her country’s Alternate Representative to the OAS for the past two and a half years, Ambassador Prince says she is very mindful of the tremendous responsibility that falls to her in her new position. She assured the Secretary General that the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines remains firmly committed to the OAS and to ensuring the organization remains financially viable.

Welcoming and wishing her a successful tenure at the Organization, Secretary General Insulza expressed confidence she will be an exemplary representative of her country. The Secretary General praised St. Vincent and the Grenadines—one of the youngest nations of the Americas—for its very active participation within the organization, noting the presence of the Caribbean countries is essential to the nature of the activities of the OAS, as they have contributed much to the formulation and implementation of the inter-American agenda.

OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin along with Grenada’s Ambassador Denis Antoine, who represented Permanent Council Chairman Ambassador Michael King of Barbados, joined several other Member State ambassadors and OAS officials for the ceremony to welcome Ambassador Prince as the new envoy of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Reference: E-189/08