Critics decry some very strange Jamaican foreign policy moves

In recent months, the Jamaican government has made some foreign policy moves, which have left opposition parties, academics and social activists in a state of bewilderment, with most wondering who is pulling the political and diplomatic strings in the background.

Even when it comes to coordinating policy moves with fellow members of the 15-nation CARICOM grouping, Jamaican authorities have left neighboring governments baffled as the country, along with Guyana, Trinidad and, to a lesser extent Barbados, were among the nations, which had tried as much as they could to take strong, principled positions at multinational forums like the United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS).

With the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in full bloom, many on the island are angry with the Andrew Holness administration for its recent absence from a UN General Assembly vote for a humanitarian truce in war.

The main opposition People’s National Party (PNP) and other critics say the country’s foreign policy positions might have sunk to a new low with Jamaica’s recent absence from the UN vote for a humanitarian truce in war between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors.

“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.

Social media comments also appear to bear out national consternation about the country’s positions on key foreign policy issues with thousands supporting anyone who complains or expresses confusion about key policy moves.

“Jamaica’s respected international stature has dramatically fallen under this minister of foreign affairs (Kamina Johnson Smith). “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 complained.

So bewildered about the status quo, the paper recently carried a column detailing what it described as some strange developments by cabinet. It felt compelled to hark back to late 2017, around the time when the US had threatened to cut aid to countries which did not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. When 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 was also able to point out that back in February 2018 when then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited the island. Jamaica, as the prospective chair of CARICOM, 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 the shares in PDVSA, the Venezuelan State-owned oil and natural gas company and supported the US resolution at the (OAS) not to recognize Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. “Never in our history have we done this. 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,” the observer said.

The following are other areas of complaints from the Observer:- March 2019: Prime Minister Andrew Holness meets privately with President Trump. The context within, which this meeting was held implied that Jamaica will not take additional loans from China.

January 2020: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits Jamaica, and we comply with the US request to only 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, The Observer argued, lambasting the administration for its strange foreign policy positions.