In responding to further criticism of his private letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves says when he makes the letter public, if he does, it would be at a time of his choice since he does not always conduct diplomacy in public.
“In this situation, I wanted Putin to understand how the leader of a small island developing state see this “Special Military Operation”, as they call it”.
“They think I would write Putin a letter and don’t point out the sacrosanct nature and principles of the UN charter, which is being broken here. I said the CARICOM statement spoke for SVG also”.
Gonsalves speaking on Star FM on Monday morning, said;
“Even if you take Russia’s articulation that they have legitimate security concerns, along with their perspectives on what has happened in the Donbas region over the last eight years, even If you take those things to the highest in favour of Russia, they still don’t reasonably justify driving a veritable horse and chariot through to the UN charter”.
“You have to decide when a particular arise if you are going to join an echo chamber openly or if you are going to draw something to the attention of a leader who you have been in communication with and him with on matters before”.
In response to Opposition remarks about he being afraid to speak about the actions of Russia because of his relationship with Putin, Gonsalves said he has no problem in saying that SVG is a friend of Russia.
“I have no problem in saying SVG is a friend of the Russian Federation; I have no problem in saying that we are the friend of every country in the world. Our UNSC run tagline was friends of all; we strive for a better world”.
“If the Opposition wants to be a self-satisfying member of an echo chamber of this or that government, they can do that; what we want is peace and a resolution to the matter”.
Gonsalves said he does not want to preempt SVG’s UN Ambassador, who will speak today, but this will be the first occasion that a vote arises on which SVG will vote.
On Sunday, the United Nations Security Council voted to hold the rare emergency special session of the 193-member UN General Assembly on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
