For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers says Trinidad and To­ba­go’s suc­cess­ful elec­tion to a non-per­ma­nent seat on the Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil demon­strates the strength of the coun­try’s re­la­tion­ship with Cari­com, de­spite re­cent diplo­mat­ic dis­agree­ments over its gov­er­nance and the reap­point­ment of Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Dr Car­la Bar­nett.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia fol­low­ing Wednes­day’s elec­tion at the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly, Sobers said the over­whelm­ing sup­port re­ceived from Cari­com mem­ber states un­der­scored the Gov­ern­ment’s con­tin­ued com­mit­ment to the re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion move­ment.

Trinidad and To­ba­go se­cured 181 votes, com­fort­ably sur­pass­ing the re­quired two-thirds ma­jor­i­ty of UN mem­ber states. Hav­ing run un­op­posed for the sole seat al­lo­cat­ed to the Latin Amer­i­can and Caribbean Group (GRU­LAC), the coun­try will be­gin its term on Jan­u­ary 1, 2027.