Jamaican foreign policy moves called into question
In times gone by, Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad, and—to a lesser extent—Barbados were among the Caribbean Community (Caricom) nations that had tried as much as practicable to take strong, principled positions at multinational forums like the United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS).
But the main opposition People’s National Party (PNP) and other critics say their foreign policy positions might have sunk to a new low with Jamaica’s recent absence from a UN General Assembly vote for a humanitarian truce in the war between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors.
Calling Jamaica’s refusal to vote in favor of the resolution strange, the PNP said the Andrew Holness administration had sunk to “a new low in Jamaican foreign policy history” by its failure to vote for something as basic and important as a humanitarian truce.
“Despite Jamaica’s role as the chair of the Caricom foreign ministers’ caucus, it failed to vote in support of the resolution, in contrast to Caricom’s agreed position. This absence of Jamaica’s representative from this crucial vote is a new low in Jamaican foreign policy history. Jamaica’s non-participation in support of such a significant resolution is inexcusable,” the party said, noting that the failure to vote clearly gives the impression that the Caricom nation does not care about the Palestinian people.
“We hope that this impression will be promptly and definitively dispelled by the government. There should be no recurrence of this major failure in our foreign policy conduct,” the PNP said.
The resolution was adopted with 120 countries in favor, 14 against, and 45 abstaining. Jamaica was among the countries that abstained, with Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith explaining that consultations did not conclude in time for the vote.
“Jamaica’s respected international stature has dramatically fallen under this minister of foreign affairs. Coming out of last week, Jamaica will need to have sober conversations with our regional and international partners to heal what seems to now be a fragmented relationship,” the Observer newspaper complained.
The PNP’s comment comes in the midst of similar expressions of concern by an increasing number of people as they wonder what is behind some strange foreign policy moves by the Jamaican government in recent years.
The Observer recently carried a column detailing what it described as some strange developments by Kingston. It harked back to late 2017, around the time when the U.S. had threatened to cut aid to countries that did not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. When the time came to vote, Jamaica abstained despite the fact that it had, over the decades, supported a two-state solution as a means to end conflict in that part of the world.
The paper also pointed out that back in February 2018, when then U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited the island as the prospective chair of Caricom, Jamaica did not invite Caricom member states “for their input to discuss matters concerning the region.”
A year later, the government announced its intention to expropriate shares in PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company, and supported the U.S. resolution at the (OAS) not to recognize Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. “Never in our history have we done this,” the Observer said. “This decision was made after the Venezuelan government and people helped to save our economy through the PetroCaribe Agreement. Now Venezuela is supplying oil to our Caricom neighbors and will not countenance Jamaica.”
Other areas of complaints from the Observer include:
March 2019, “Prime Minister Andrew Holness meets privately with President Trump. The context within which this meeting was held implied that Jamaica would not take additional loans from China.”
January 2020, “U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits Jamaica, and we comply with the U.S. request to only to invite eight of 15 Caricom countries to meet with him, excluding the Caricom chair, Prime Minister Mia Mottley.”
February 2021, “India begins distributing COVID-19 vaccines to Caricom countries. Barbados was the first to receive and Jamaica was last.”
February 2022, “The government bungles the safe return of Jamaican students from Ukraine as a result of Russia’s invasion of that country.”
April 2022, “Jamaica announces its bid to run for Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat, much to the surprise of its Caricom partners, and begins a flamboyant campaign. Jamaica loses, and it is clear why—Caricom and Africa did not vote unanimously as a block for us, which was a shock.”
October 2023, “Jamaica is ‘out of the room’ and absent from the most recent UN resolution for the protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations in Gaza during the war between Israel and Hamas.”
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