KINGSTON, Jamaica – Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller will on Thursday address a special United Nations (UN) Open Debate on Peace and Security Challenges Facing Small Island Developing States (SIDS) at the UN Headquarters in New York.

A release from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) said the prime minister was invited to give the Jamaican and Caribbean perspective during the panel discussion on the issue. The other panellists from SIDS Member States are the Prime Minister of Samoa Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi and the Seychelles Minister of Finance, Trade and the Blue Economy Jean Pail Adam.

Simpson Miller is expected to outline Jamaica’s efforts to secure its people, protect its borders and participate in global peace and security initiatives. She will underscore the close link between national, regional and global peace and security and economic and social development issues, the release said.

The prime minister will also outline some measures that are necessary to enable small island nations such as Jamaica and other Caribbean countries to overcome security challenges.

OPM noted that the current security challenges in Jamaica, including the prevalence of the gun related murders, the proliferation of guns, the effects of the drugs trade and other dimensions of transnational organised crime, will feature in Simpson Miller’s statement to the UN Security Council.

She will travel to New York today and return on Friday. During her representation of Jamaica at the UN Security Council, Minister of Transport, Works and Housing Dr Omar Davies will be in charge of the Government.