Her Excellency Yolande Yvonne Smith Permanent Representative to the Organisation of American States (OAS) has been Making transition to the embassy in Washington DC.Smith speaking Exclusively to Real FM’s Andre Donald said, “The transition wasn’t so difficult, I have been in the sphere for a long time. I have spent time in Washington already; it’s good to come here again. Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the recommendation there’s a lot of things that went on behind the scenes.”
Last week Smith, the former Deputy Consular General in Miami presented her Credentials to the Secretary General of the Organization, Luis Almagro.
Explaining the process Smith added, “When these announcements are made we had to wait for agreement from the White House and once that was granted we had to go to Her majesty Queen Elizabeth II to Issue the letter of credence.”
“This gave me a good time to, get started, get administrative stuff together,” said Smith who also admitted that the process was not lengthy but a long time in the making.
“The difference in the two positions is that the Consulate, handles passports , visa’s and Tourism Aspects while at the OAS Office we will be dealing with Bilateral matters, striving to protect Grenada’s interest to the UN and other countries they foster relationships with.”
Looking ahead to a number of initiatives from her office the OAS Permanent Representative, told Donald that the office is gearing up for a Grenada’s 45th Independence Celebrations-including an open house at the Embassy on February 9th.
Also on the Agenda are the 2020 CARICOM Conference and Grenada’s assuming of the Chair of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI).
The purpose of CIDI is to promote cooperation among its Member States for the furtherance of their integral development and, in particular, to help eliminate extreme poverty.
The CIDI is composed of all the Member States who meet in regular, special, specialized or sectoral meetings. The member states may appoint an alternate representative and advisers, as it sees fit.
Under her stewardship the island will also put forward the Agenda of Climate resilience, as one of the priorities of the Government.
Smith also wants to use the momentum to engage the Diaspora.
