GREAT BAY--St. Maarten, together with Aruba and Curaçao, will use the upcoming 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly to push greater attention to sustainable development, climate resilience and access to financing for small island states.
The priorities are outlined in an August 28 letter from Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Tom Berendsen to the Dutch House of Representatives setting out the Kingdom of the Netherlands’ position for the new UN General Assembly session. The official parliamentary document confirms the Kingdom’s preparations for the 81st session.
For St. Maarten and the other Caribbean countries within the Kingdom, the discussions are expected to focus heavily on the vulnerabilities faced by Small Island Developing States, commonly referred to as SIDS.
These include exposure to climate change and sea-level rise, limited economic scale, susceptibility to external economic shocks and challenges in obtaining affordable financing for development and resilience projects.
The Kingdom considers Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten an important part of its voice at the United Nations because the three Caribbean countries can speak directly from the experience of small island states while also serving as a link with the wider Caribbean and Latin America.
According to the policy outlined by Berendsen, the Caribbean countries bring perspectives to the UN on climate resilience, sustainable development, migration, economic resilience and regional cooperation.
That role has become increasingly important as SIDS continue to argue internationally that conventional economic measurements do not always adequately capture their vulnerabilities. A country may have a relatively high per-capita income while still facing major financial exposure from hurricanes, climate change, dependence on imports and a narrow economic base.
Access to financing is therefore expected to feature prominently in the Kingdom’s position.
For St. Maarten, the issue is particularly relevant because major resilience and infrastructure projects can require levels of investment that are difficult for a small economy to absorb. International discussions surrounding SIDS have increasingly focused on whether financing should take vulnerability into account rather than relying primarily on income classifications.
Climate change will also be among the central issues.
Sea-level rise is being described within the Kingdom’s position as a threat affecting both the Caribbean islands and the low-lying European Netherlands. The Kingdom intends to use upcoming high-level UN discussions to support stronger international action on the consequences of rising seas.
The Kingdom is also expected to participate in discussions surrounding the Right to Development, where structural vulnerabilities and fair access to financing are among the issues receiving attention.
The 81st UN General Assembly therefore provides St. Maarten and its Caribbean partners within the Kingdom with an opportunity to place island-specific concerns before the international community while participating as part of the broader Kingdom delegation.
The approach follows the Kingdom’s established UN policy in which Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten participate alongside the Netherlands. During the previous UN General Assembly session, the Dutch government similarly identified climate change and financial vulnerability among the major challenges facing the Caribbean countries as SIDS.
Regional stability will also form part of the Kingdom’s agenda, including developments in Venezuela.
The Kingdom has identified Venezuela as its largest neighboring country in the region and has stressed the importance of stability, rule of law, fundamental freedoms, human rights and sustainable socio-economic development there.
