An ‘intellectual giant’: Antigua PM lauds Sir Ron Sanders as ‘hardest working ambassador’

Prime Minister Gaston Browne has lauded Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the United States and the Organization of American States (OAS), Sir Ronald Sanders.

On Saturday, Browne praised all of the country’s ambassadors for the work they have been doing, especially since the COVID-19 outbreak.

But the Prime Minister singled out the senior diplomat, who he said is also assisting the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in many areas.

“Ambassador Ron Sanders is easily, in my mind and in the mind of others, the hardest working ambassador that we have in the system,” Browne said.

“He has an enormous amount of knowledge and experience that he has been sharing with the entire government, and I can say that Antigua and Barbuda is the better for having such a well experienced and intellectual giant as part of our team within the United States and our Ambassador to the OAS.

“In fact, he’s not only assisting Antigua and Barbuda but in many instances assisting the CARICOM and the OECS sub-region,” Browne added.

As an example, Browne said one of the most recent decisions taken by the OECS Authority was to engage Sir Ron to assist in liaising with the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and to help the OECS restore its Category 1 status.

Just over a month ago the FAA announced that it has assigned a Category 2 rating to OECS Member States under its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) programme.

“So I know that Sir Ron has been doing an extraordinarily good job and it’s amazing that at his age he’s still so sharp, so energetic. I don’t know where he gets his energy from and I just hope that when I get up to his age I’ll have that level of energy to continue to perform in whatever field I’ll be involved in at that time,” Prime Minister Browne said.

Sir Ron is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and at Massey College in the University of Toronto.