STATEMENT BY THE HON. MINISTER OF FINANCIAL

SERVICES AND INVESTMENT (ACTING MINISTER OF FOREIGN

AFFAIRS) OF THE BAHAMAS, ALLYSON MAYNARD-GIBSON,

BRIDGETOWN, JUNE 2002

Madame Chairman,

I thank the government and people of Barbados for their gracious hospitality, which will contribute in no small way to the success of the XXXII Regular Session of the GAS and I congratulate the President, the Honourable Billie Miller, on her election to the Presidency of this august body.

The Bahamas thanks you for this opportunity to bring focus to the need for a multidimensional approach to hemispheric security.

We adopt the observation of the Barbados delegation that the development of our Region is tied to the definition of security.

We recognize that democracy is best secured in an environment of sustainable economic development.

Certainly, The Bahamas and most of the other Caribbean nations enjoy a long history of democracy. Indeed, pursuant to our long democratic tradition our citizens gave my government an overwhelming mandate on 2 May of this year.

These histories of democracy do not make us any less vulnerable to the non-traditional threats to security that we are discussing today.

We suggest the urgent need for the recognition and acknowledgement of the extent to which these non-traditional threats to our security affect all our nations, not just small states.

As we acknowledge the shared impact of these threats, we also invite acknowledgement of the different ways in which they impact us. For example, a hurricane may be regarded as a threat to one country. This same hurricane may devastate another and set back its national development for more than a decade. A policy pursued as a means of national development in one country may cause significant instability in another country.

In The Bahamas, we are significantly impacted by migration, drug trafficking, and HN/AIDS; all of which could have a destabilising effect on out countries and threaten our security.

In this Assembly, we shall focus on the situation in Haiti. The Bahamas has been active in its support of CARICOM and the GAS in bringing focus to and addressing the Haitian situation. Soon after my government's election we were faced with the continuing tragedy of deaths of persons who migrate by the most dangerous of means from Haiti to The Bahamas and our neighbours. A not insignificant portion of our resources are diverted annually from national economic and social development to matters involving Haiti including aid, support of CARICOM and repatriation.

In this connection, we invite serious consideration and support of the Resolution on the Situation in Haiti to, among other things, establish democracy and facilitate economic development.

We urge this Assembly to propose the institutional means by which we all may join our political wills and resources to address these non traditional security threats that impact the well being of all of our nations and our citizens.

Madame Chair, I note the observation of the delegation from Saint Lucia. We encourage the more powerful among us to the urgent acceptance that small islands states are members of the family of nations, all with a wealth of resources (human and otherwise) to cause a peaceful and orderly global social, political and economic development.

Madame Chair, The Bahamas remains committed to a multidimensional and multilateral approach to the orderly and peaceful development of the world social, political and economic order.