Earlier this month Barbados announced the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Asian Kingdom of Cambodia and the European nation of Belarus. Beyond the standard press releases and signing ceremonies that always accompany such developments, this news is another chapter in the pursuit of a foreign policy that has seen the country of around 290,000 build a global identity that defies its comparatively small size.
But with all respect to the work done by each nation’s diplomats, members of the Caribbean family could be forgiven for wondering how critical and significant these new relations will be to Barbados. Let’s look now, with consideration of Barbados’ goal and that of similar Caribbean islands.
Barbados Overview
These three nations start new relations with a mixed bag of economic performances.
At present time Barbados has economic challenges similar to other Latin American countries. Bridgetown needs to continue taking proactive reforms that enhance the ease of doing business. That said, while recent economic forecasts have been timid, the nation has made strong progress with the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme and the extended fund facility (EFF) arrangement with the IMF, meaning the groundwork is in place for a stronger future.
For Belarus, its fate and fortunes remain closely tied to its association with Moscow. Russia, faced with sanctions, experienced slow economic growth in 2019 which had a knock-on effect with that of Belarus. Just the same, although progress has been made on reforms in partnership with the IMF, recent years have seen criticism that the speed and scope of them is not sufficient to meet growth targets.
Cambodia, by contrast, has been one of the great economic success stories of recent decades. Between 1998 and 2018 it enjoyed an average growth rate of 8%, winning it a place among the fastest growing economies in the world. In turn, its poverty rate has been rapidly falling: in 2007 in was 47.8 per cent but by 2014 it had shrunk to 13.5 per cent.
Beyond the potential for new trade and other exchanges, the establishment of diplomatic relations between Barbados and these two nations signifies that the old era of prioritising regional engagement, to the exclusion of others elsewhere, continues to shrink. For Barbados, this new dynamic is one its history shows has long been in the making.
Barbados’ Longstanding Aspirations
In addressing the United Nations in December 1966, the then prime minister of Barbados, the Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow, outlined his vision for the nation’s place in the international community; a vision that would go on to be a guiding star of its foreign policy approach ever since. Barrow said, “The people of Barbados do not draw a dividing line between their internal affairs and their foreign policy,” and “. . . we will support genuine efforts at world peace because our society is stable.” Also: “We will strenuously assist the uprooting of vestigial imperialisms because our institutions are free.”
Although the face of the region in 2020 is very different from that of the post-colonial era of 1966, many in the Caribbean family feel the diminishment of the “vestigial imperialisms” that Barrow decried, have never been totally removed; and indeed, where they have, they threaten to arise once more. It’s why Barrow’s summation of Barbados’ position over five decades ago remains vivid and relevant to the goals of Barbados and surrounding Caribbean nations today: “We are friends of all, satellites of none.”
This new strategy is also one that recognises the substantial fractures that have emerged within a number of Barbados’ traditional relationships in recent years. As Invest Barbados noted, “The Government has taken the view that it must enter into new relationships with like-minded countries, seek increased opportunities for trade and business, and consider where tourism markets can be opened or existing markets expanded. This effort is regarded as of particular importance in a global climate in which traditional friendships can no longer be taken for granted and there is a clearly shifting geopolitical landscape characterised by greater national insularity amongst large developed countries.”
Growing the Neighbourhood
Admiring inspirational speeches and aspirations for an international community where collaboration prevails is one thing; recognising the brutal reality that ‘might makes right’ politics can still prevail, is another. Accordingly, in this arena, any state – much less a small one – that seeks to stand completely alone would find the benefits of independence profoundly outweighed by the risks of isolation.
These new foreign relations far beyond the Caribbean are examples of those that all local states must now contemplate as individual countries (and the region at large) must redefine their role in the world.
The perspective of New Zealand diplomat Chris Seed evidences that there is immense value in the new relationships that Barbados is pursuing. For Seed, the “small state diplomatic playbook” holds three principles. Firstly a nation must have a narrative about what it is and what it seeks to achieve within the international community. Then it must build the architecture (such as via membership in regional organisations) to advance those aims. Finally, a nation requires connections. Of course, such connections can be had through organisations but direct and bilateral ones offer an avenue for two states’ diplomats to work directly with one another.
