GEOPOLITICAL TIGHTROPE
Multilateralism key to Jamaica’s survival in a fragmented world, says Johnson Smith
Published:Friday | January 30, 2026 | 12:09 AMKimone Francis/Senior Staff Reporter
Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Kamina Johnson Smith says Jamaica’s economic independence is dependent on its ability to balance competing global interests amid mounting geopolitical tensions.
Johnson Smith was among a panel of foreign ministers discussing global fragmentation and whether Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has a voice.
Even as larger LAC countries struggle with ideological shifts and a swing towards right-wing governments in some countries deepening divisions, Johnson Smith asserted that Jamaica’s foreign policy is rooted in “pragmatism balanced with principle”.
She said the Caribbean island’s stance on multilateralism has served it well in walking a tight rope between the United States and China.
“Jamaica is one of the first English-speaking countries to have adopted the One China Policy, and we also have our strongest and largest trading partner, the United States. Similarly, our largest in infrastructure investment partner is China, and our strongest and longest-standing security partner is the United States of America,” said Johnson Smith on Thursday.
“We’ve always recognised that there are some basics that are non-negotiable. We believe in multilateralism. We’re too small to not believe in multilateralism. We believe that one country, one vote must mean something, and we continue to use our voice to that respect,” Johnson Smith declared during the panel discussion at the Panama Convention Centre in Panama City.
Johnson Smith, the country’s top diplomat at the 2026 CAF-International Economic Forum, said governments ought not to get lost in ideological and philosophical arguments, but instead, focus on their responsibility to manage relationships with the world in ways that support national-development agenda and will deliver most for citizens.
Economic stability
She noted that delivery occurs through education, health, and security by building economic stability and by growing.
“In order to do that, you need to be able to trade effectively, invest in infrastructure, and that means strong partnerships and good governance,” she said, asserting that the Jamaican Government has done this.
Johnson Smith said over the past 10 years, the Holness administration has delivered no new taxes, introduced a social pension, increased public sector compensation, increased social-support programmes, cut the prevalence of poverty in half, and lowered the debt-to-GDP ratio to 60 per cent (pre-Hurricane Melissa).
“We focus on delivery, we focus on our people, we focus on ensuring that we have strong institutions that can build the economic independence around us. Political independence, we achieved in 1962. But without economic independence, it can sometimes be conceptual. But we believe that being strong does not mean being aggressive,” said the foreign minister.
Johnson Smith raised the idea of an “unpopular opinion” that the “level of testosterone that is present in leadership generally provides for a predisposition to aggression that makes disputes less easy to unpack and to solve”.
At the same time, she said there is a perspective that a woman brings to leadership that is different.
She said women are more willing to listen, have a more collaborative approach, and assist with the perspective that strength is not demonstrated aggression but by an understanding of a country’s stance from a principled position.
“So, from Jamaica’s perspective, we believe that it is possible to balance interests; that it is possible to engage with greater powers with mutual respects and understanding; and that even where your partners disagree, it is possible for you to engage in a space that allows for national development and strong partnerships that are complementary, if not the same,” she said.
“We really do not focus on divisive, politically based, emotional arguments that are fantastic for panel discussions. They are, but they are sometimes unhelpful in a complicated geopolitical space. So what are the things that we need to do? We need a competitiveness agenda that deals with connectivity, digital inclusion, logistics. How can we all benefit from that? We need to deal with a diplomacy that’s grounded in principles of sovereign equality and territorial integrity … ,” she added, while acknowledging that “it’s not easy”.