Shridath Ramphal, Elizabeth II's co-conspirator

By: Beatrice E. Rangel - 03/09/2024

The death of Shridath Ramphal brings to a close an era of understanding and achievement between relatively less developed countries and industrialized countries. Ramphal was Guyana's most successful foreign minister and the most effective leader of a multilateral organization in the last quarter of the last century. His talent for understanding development and its complexities as well as for effectively using diplomacy in intense conflicts earned him the respect of 71 countries located in the Caribbean, Asia and Africa that formed the British Commonwealth of Nations. But above all, he earned him the trust, respect and complicity of Her Majesty Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

Throughout her reign, Her Majesty Elizabeth II held a vision of a United Kingdom strengthened by eventual fusion with former colonies into an organisation capable of bringing progress to those nations and economic stability to London. This vision was forged when, at the end of the Second World War, the then Princess of Wales travelled to Africa with her parents. This interest was later solidified by her private tour of Kenya and her official visit to Australia in 1954. She was inspired to see the admiration and affection of distant peoples who had barely had contact with London. And there arose the vision of a region of the world united to seek development and preserve peace.

That vision was shared by former Foreign Minister of Guyana, Shridath Ramphal, who was also the most successful Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations (1975-1990). Elizabeth II's vision and Ramphal's operational talent succeeded in transforming the relationship between England and its former colonists into a partnership for progress that effectively resolved the crises in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe and Apartheid in South Africa. The Lome Treaty was also signed, granting tariff advantages for the introduction into Europe of products from the members of the Commonwealth (71 countries located in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean) while offering incentives to European companies that invested in that vast region.

Perhaps the best known but least understood was the alliance between Ramphal and Elizabeth II to end Apartheid. The two joined forces in a single strategy to overcome Margaret Thatcher's free trade and impose sanctions on South Africa for practising Apartheid. For Elizabeth II, this was the best way to tell the world that the United Kingdom would not tolerate policies that were at odds with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For Ramphal, the end of Apartheid was the end of colonialism.

Thanks to Ramphal's talent, the Commonwealth ceased to be a formal entity and began to develop economic links between its member countries and between them and the global economy. Many member nations took advantage of the programs created by Ramphal to accelerate their development rates. This was the case of Bermuda and Barbados and, to a lesser extent, Trinidad and Tobago. But India, the homeland of Ramphal's parents, also benefited greatly from the projection he gave it. Thanks to Ramphal's links with large British and American companies, interest in that country arose as a manufacturing powerhouse to better serve the markets of industrialized countries at stable prices.

The Elizabeth II-Ramphal partnership was highly successful and promised to transform relations between industrialised countries and relatively less developed countries into powerful partnerships for development. But just as Elizabeth II failed to commit her heirs to the idea of a strong and thriving Commonwealth of Nations, Ramphal also failed to prepare a successor to lead the Commonwealth General Secretariat who was committed to this vision. And as the years and unexpected and very public family conflicts consumed Elizabeth II's strength and Ramphal's mandate as Secretary General came to an end, relations between the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth changed direction and tone. A pragmatic approach to the relationship was imposed in London, abandoning the position of the United Kingdom in favour of placing England as the interlocutor of the Commonwealth. Likewise, many members of the Commonwealth began to give greater importance to relations between themselves and with China. The great Asian dragon brought with it a pot full of resources for investment in infrastructure, wrapped up in the new concept of the Silk Road. Exchanges with the United Kingdom lost the significance of other days. In this lukewarm segment of relations, British interest in leaving the European Union emerged. The process lasted three years during which there was no interest in England for other foreign policy projects.

Once the divorce was over, England clung to the chimera of concluding a free trade agreement with the United States. This proved to be a true political autism. Washington's descendants were immersed in multiple domestic problems that include digital anonymity, border insecurity, economic stagnation and political polarization, and free trade was removed from the American agenda. This panorama not only does not allow but flatly rejects the conclusion of free trade agreements with any country.

And so England was left floating aimlessly in a world of strategic alliances while the British Commonwealth of Nations looked for another guide with which to embark on the difficult path of economic stability and development. Thus began to dissolve one of the most valuable and productive post-war ententes between a British sovereign and a brilliant international operator born in Guyana, a country that today shines in the Caribbean region for its oil wealth.

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