Suriname’s Foreign Minister appears poised to be next OAS Secretary General

Last Updated on Saturday, 30 November 2024, 14:09 by Writer

Suriname’s Foreign Affairs Minister Albert Ramdin on Saturday said he was confident that he was well on his way to being elected the next Secretary General of the 34-nation Organisation of American States (OAS), having already secured concrete support from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) bloc of nations and several Latin American countries.

“So far, we have received on the basis of solid, substantive campaigning good support and from my experience at the OAS, that is the only way to engage member states,” Ramdin, a former OAS Assistant Secretary General from 2005 to 2015, told Demerara Waves Online News.

Ramdin said he has already secured formal endorsements from Honduras, Chile and Peru and so, along with CARICOM’s 14 votes, he was closer to clinching the required 18 votes at next March’s elections to succeed incumbent OAS Chief, Luis Almagro who was elected in 2015. “There is a strong aspiration to occupy that post so it’s a strong endorsement. I have been around and I have seen how countries are campaigning for what now is called the CARICOM candidate,” he said.

The Surinamese Foreign Minister expressed his displeasure at objections by his lone rival, Paraguay’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Rubén Ramírez Lezcano’s objections about the OAS’ budget.

Should he be elected as the next OAS Secretary General, Ramdin said under his leadership that hemispheric organisation would be listening to member states to focus on peace-building, conflict resolution, strengthening democracy, human rights., security, and using the Inter-American Development Bank as a “tool” for development. He also promised to have the OAS act on a report by consultants that point to weaknesses and strengths of the hemispheric body. “There is some criticism about the fact that the OAS in the past 10 years has become less relevant and less important and that it was driven based on personal views. Well, personal views are important but in the context of an inter-governmental agency, my experience is that personal views inform the person, but it cannot be the voice of the organisation. The voice of the organisation is determined by the member states,” he said.

Ramdin also served as Suriname’s Permanent Representative to the OAS from 1997 to 1999 and CARICOM Assistant Secretary General for Foreign and Community Relations from 1999 to 2001.

Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua are not actively participating in the OAS’ work.