Prime Minister Gaston Browne has told the UN General Assembly that small island states must be recognized as “custodians of the ocean,” and called for urgent global action to protect marine resources, combat pollution, and expand blue-economy opportunities.

“For islands like mine, the ocean is not scenery—it is sustenance, it is survival, it is our future,” the Prime Minister said. “Yet reefs bleach, mangroves vanish, plastics choke our coasts, and illegal fishing robs our people of their livelihoods.”

The Prime Minister urged decisive action in four areas to included scaling up reinforcement and support for SIDS to secure maritime boundaries to prevent illegal, unreported and unregulated IUU fishing.

To address the plastics and pollution issue, the Prime Minister called for the backing of a robust global plastics treaty to end the scourge that destroys reefs and coastlines.

The country’s leader also called for the expansion of financing for mangroves, seagrass, and coastal ecosystems that sequester carbon and protect shorelines.

In addition, he called for the provision of satellite monitoring and data-sharing as standard support for SIDS to safeguard their vast Exclusive Economic Zones.

Prime Minister Browne also issued a clear warning on seabed mining stating that: “Until independent science proves no serious harm, we support a moratorium on seabed mining.

No nation should mortgage the ocean floor for short-term profit. The ocean is our lifeline—its destruction would be irreversible.”

He invited international partners to strengthen cooperation on ocean stewardship, blending conservation with sustainable economic growth for island communities.