NEW YORK--Three prime ministers of the Kingdom, Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, Evelyn Wever-Croes of Aruba and Silveria Jacobs of St. Maarten, last week Friday met with United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The prime ministers were in New York for the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Wever-Croes said during a press conference in Aruba on Monday that her country received much praise for organising the water conference in March this year, together with the Netherlands.
Wever-Croes said that in the meeting with Guterres and the other two prime ministers, she elaborated on the challenges that Aruba, a Small Island Developing States (SIDS), faced. She asked attention for the large debts that the Dutch Caribbean countries, which are all SIDS, generated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Wever-Croes, Guterres is a promotor of the Swap Debt to Grant Project, whereby countries with debts incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic receive some sort of dispensation which enables them to make investments to improve their resilience. Wever-Croes said that she asked to keep the emphasis on this.
The UN Secretary General informed the three prime ministers that recently, Portugal applied the Swap Debt to Grant Project for its former colony Cabo Verde. Wever-Croes said that she was committed to work on a similar move for Aruba, together with the UN.
During the press conference, Wever-Croes provided more information about the three days that she spent at the UN and her participation in 28 bilateral conferences, high level events and meetings on topics such as human rights, women’s rights, climate adaptation, energy and poverty.
