Above: Bahamas Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest (BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)

Bahamian Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest called for the world’s larger democracies to help island democracies like the Bahamas in the battle against piracy, illegal drug trafficking and terrorism.

Turnquest was speaking at the 31st Small Branches Conference of the 57th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference.

“If [small democracies] are to effectively counter threats to their stability, then shared responsibility dictates that appropriate technical assistance and international cooperation must be the norm,” he said.

He said the “inherent vulnerabilities” of small states to these types of transnational crimes were “patently obvious,” and that they could “destabilise small democracies at multiple levels.

“The impact of a terrorist attack, particularly on a so-called ‘soft target’ in a small democracy, could no doubt precipitate an economic and social crisis with all that this implies for growth and development,” he said.

–Bahamas Information Service