Antigua and Barbuda PM meets Venezuela’s acting president and UN nominee at COP31

Against the backdrop of high-stakes global climate negotiations at the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) hosted in Antalya, Türkiye, Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister the Right Honourable Gaston Browne has conducted two key high-level diplomatic meetings to advance shared priorities across regional cooperation, climate action and multilateral governance. The first courtesy engagement saw Prime Minister Browne sit down for a warm, productive exchange with Her Excellency Delcy Rodríguez, Acting President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The two heads of delegation used the informal, conference-side setting to review a broad agenda of bilateral and regional issues of mutual concern, building on longstanding diplomatic ties between the two Caribbean and South American nations that share common priorities around climate resilience for small island and developing states. Later in his COP31 schedule, Prime Minister Browne held a separate strategic meeting with Her Excellency María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, the official Antigua and Barbuda nominee for the post of United Nations Secretary-General. Espinosa, a widely respected veteran diplomat who previously served as President of the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly and Ecuador’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, was formally put forward as Antigua and Barbuda’s candidate for the top UN role on May 11, 2026. Her decades of cross-cutting experience span multilateral diplomacy, sustainable development policy, global environmental governance and decades of leadership in international climate negotiations, positioning her as a uniquely qualified candidate to steer the UN through overlapping global crises. The two leaders’ meeting on the COP31 margins allowed for targeted coordination on the nomination campaign, alignment on shared climate action priorities that will form a core pillar of Espinosa’s platform, and discussion of ways to mobilize cross-regional support from fellow developing nations gathered at the climate summit.