DISCURSOS PROFERIDOS NA SESSÃO DE ABERTURA¹²

1. Observações do Secretário-Geeral, Dr. César Gaviria

2. Pronunciamento do Secretário-Geral Adjunto, Embaixador Christopher R. Thomas.

Statement by Ambassador Christopher R. Thomas
Assistant Secretary General, Organization of American States
at the High-Level Meeting on the Special Security Concerns of Small Island States

San Salvador, El Salvador, February 25, 1998

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Chairman, Mr. Secretary General, President of the Permanent Council, Ambassadors, Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen:

The special meeting of the Committee on Hemispheric Security on the Special Security Concerns of Small Island States defined small island states as those states "characterized by: limited domestic markets, open economies with high dependence on trade, dependence on one or two exports of primary products, and raw materials destined for one or two major markets."

In the political, economic, and social circumstances of today, this spells vulnerability and precariousness of the highest order. This is why this meeting, as were those that preceded it on the problem of security of small island states, is so important to the region today. It is a subject, which encompasses every dimension of the development initiative and consequently at the heart of the agenda of our organization. Today’s meeting brings together high level officials around this critical topic and testifies to the commitment of the OAS in responding to the needs of all member states.

The process of refining and redefining the policies and measures by which the Organization of American States seeks to respond to and serve the needs of member states, more familiarly known as the New Vision, has effectively been launched. It began during a period of cataclysmic change in the international system as the world moved from the Cold War context of military and nuclear determinants of security, to the post-Cold War context where security is an engagement function of social, economic, environmental, and cultural questions.

These non-traditional determinants of security, which are now internationally recognized as the new agenda for peace, have, in the case of island states of our region, served to profile a new dimension of political stability on which the democracy of our most vulnerable member states must be anchored.

In the case of the Caribbean member states of our hemisphere, these are critical generic factors. For whereas in a former environment, circumstantial or external military might characterized a compelling dimension of security for small island states of our hemisphere and indeed the world, in this the evolving post modern era, external economic, social, and cultural factors, will continually and progressively, determine the national security concerns of small island states. Where these factors militate against their economic and social stability, they constitute threats to the political stability of the smaller member states of the region as a whole.

In this regard the security threats to the region could stem from external as well as internal factors, much of which cannot be managed or contained by individual national initiatives. External threats posed by drugs and their corrosive institutional damage, terrorism, unbalanced trading arrangements--particularly in the case of the Eastern Caribbean-nuclear waste disposal, and natural disasters should not be underestimated.

The repercussions of some of these factors are easily recognized. Others are not so manifest though their destabilising effects can be tremendous. It is not always readily admitted how economic arrangements, terrorism, and certain environmental questions constitute security issues in the Caribbean as compared to issues like nuclear waste disposal, natural disasters, and drugs, which are more globally familiar. They do constitute, however, critical important security concerns.

The dismantling of trading arrangements on which the economies of small states largely depend is potentially detrimental to the social, political, and general national structure of those countries. The impact of such measures could further entrench structural poverty, which is the single most important threat to the security of small states. Our region must, undoubtedly, agree and accept that economic hardship brought on by arrangements that fail to consider the particular situation of small states could inevitably lead to their serious political destabilisation. It becomes axiomatic therefore, that there can be no development without security and no security without development.

The economic, social, and cultural development of member states, through cooperative action and the strengthening of peace and security throughout the Continent, are among the fundamental purposes of our organization. Collaboration for the security concerns of small island states, given their clearly established and recognized particularities, must therefore of necessity further this important dimension of our regional vocation.

The hemispheric agenda definition and treatment of security concerns for small island states also answers a persistent political question - namely, the commitment of the larger historic membership of our organization in the search and promotion of functional integration of Caribbean member states. This meeting today serves to propagate, therefore, at a most timely opportunity, the wider ethos of hemispheric cooperation in furthering the testimony of the growth and increasing consciousness of our organization’s ultimate purpose. The substantial presence of CARICOM members here today undoubtedly, furthers this progressive development as we continue to shape the New Vision of our organization.

The Caribbean states themselves have already taken significant initiatives in the search for and promotion of their security. These include a regional security system and their cooperation with hemispheric partners over a wide range of cogent and fundamental socio-economic imperatives in the context of continuing and critical regional concerns.

Many factors, however, point to the need for further consolidation. This meeting will undoubtedly reflect the region’s determination to adopt concrete measure to meet the needs and concerns of small island states for genuine security through dialogue and mutual partnership, as well as mechanisms and prescriptive actions for effective regional advancement in this area. Certain concrete proposals and recommendations have already been advanced through ongoing regional interaction and constructive political dialogue. Our meeting must focus these ongoing processes in specific action orientated programs.

The formulation by this meeting of security and peace measures in the form of practical institutional realization can serve to institute certain vanguard measures of our organization in the fulfillment of our new vision for the twenty-first century to the enduring benefit of the island states of our hemisphere.

As Assistant Secretary General of our organization, I express the hope and expectation that together we will be able to secure this important and decisive objective and thank the Government of El Salvador for this most timely invitation.

ANEXO II