Barbados will soon appoint a new ambassador at the United Nations to replace Joseph Goddard who has occupied the position for almost six years.
According to UN sources, Goddard, a former general secretary of the National Union of Public Workers has let it be known that he will be leaving at the end of the year and plans to return to Barbados.
His departure was confirmed to Bajans in New York during the recent visit of Minister of Foreign Affairs Senator Maxine McClean, who attended the UN Climate Change summit and delivered Barbados’ foreign policy statement at the General Assembly session on Tuesday.
“We were told about his impending departure,” said a Caribbean diplomat at the UN.
Unconfirmed reports had circulated at the UN and in the Barbadian community in New York for several months that Goddard, who was first appointed by David Thompson, the late Prime Minister in 2008 and kept on by his successor Freundel Stuart, was being recalled. Goddard’s term expired in August.