Above: Barbados FM Maxine McClean and South Korean Special Envoy Min Dong-seok (UN Photos/Erin Siegal and Pierre-Michel Virot)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Barbados, as a small island state, needs a multidimensional security strategy, according to Foreign Minister Senator Maxie McClean.

The Minister was speaking during a courtesy call from Min Dong-seok, Special Envoy of South Korea at the Foreign Ministry’s headquarters in St Michael.

“Security for this country extends into areas such as health, social well-being, political and economic stability and environmental stability,” McClean said.

South Korea is one of the candidates for the United Nations Security Council in 2013-2014, and Min said his country would do its best to speak for small island developing states like Barbados if selected.

South Korea benefited from aid from the international community over the years, and now it wishes to return the favor, he said.

“We will do our best to address these issues through cooperation,” he said. “It is our turn to give back those benefits; Korea is committed to making a more accountable, transparent and inclusive UN Security Council.”