Saint Kitts and Nevis has no major international disputes, but its status as a transshipment point for South American drugs destined for the United States and Europe has caused some tension with foreign countries.
It has diplomatic relations through the Kittitian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the Republic of China on Taiwan (not to be confused with the People's Republic of China). St. Kitts and Nevis also maintains diplomatic relations with the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Cuba and South Korea, as well as with many Latin American countries and neighboring Eastern Caribbean states. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Nations and several of its specialized and related agencies, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the Organization of American States, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, the Eastern Caribbean Regional Security System (RSS), and the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) and Non Aligned Movement. The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank is headquartered in St. Kitts.
As a member of CARICOM, St. Kitts and Nevis strongly backed efforts by the United States to implement UN Security Council Resolution 940, designed to facilitate the departure of Haiti's de facto authorities from power. The country agreed to contribute personnel to the multinational force, which restored the democratically elected government of Haiti in October 1994.
In December 2006, the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis completed an official visit to Taiwan as a symbol of friendship.
Famous quotes containing the words foreign, relations and/or saint:
“There is a close tie of affection between sovereigns and their subjects; and as chaste wives should have no eyes but for their husbands, so faithful liegemen should keep their regards at home and not look after foreign crowns. For my part I like not for my sheep to wear a stranger’s mark nor to dance after a foreigner’s whistle.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“The land is the appointed remedy for whatever is false and fantastic in our culture. The continent we inhabit is to be physic and food for our mind, as well as our body. The land, with its tranquilizing, sanative influences, is to repair the errors of a scholastic and traditional education, and bring us to just relations with men and things.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“This is the fundamental idea of culture, insofar as it sets but one task for each of us: to further the production of the philosopher, of the artist, and of the saint within us and outside us, and thereby to work at the consummation of nature.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)