CFR discussion · 23 September 2026
Development finance, resilience and institutional reform
The Council on Foreign Relations hosted Prime Minister Mia Mottley in New York for a discussion chaired by Linda Thomas-Greenfield. The published event record identifies the challenges facing climate-vulnerable and developing countries and reform of the international financial architecture among the subjects discussed.
Bridgetown Initiative · Version 3.0
Liquidity, debt and development finance
The Bridgetown Initiative originated in 2022 and its third iteration proposes reforms across emergency liquidity, debt sustainability, multilateral development-bank lending and the mobilisation of private capital. Its programme is broader than a request for a larger pool of climate aid.
Proposed transaction · 2026
A debt-for-social swap already under development
Mottley told CFR that Barbados was preparing its first debt-for-social swap in collaboration with several banks. Barbadian officials had described the proposed transaction publicly before the New York appearance, including its intended connection to health and non-communicable-disease programmes. The CFR remarks therefore advanced an existing initiative rather than announcing it for the first time.
Completed transaction · 2024
The earlier climate transaction was separate
Barbados completed a debt-for-climate swap in 2024 intended to create fiscal space for water and climate-resilience investment. It is distinct from the proposed 2026 debt-for-social transaction and its figures should not be conflated with that later proposal.
IMF review · 20 June 2025
Final EFF and RSF reviews completed
The IMF Executive Board completed the fifth and final reviews of Barbados’s Extended Fund Facility and Resilience and Sustainability Facility in June 2025. The Fund said public debt had continued to decline and described the programmes as supporting fiscal sustainability, growth and climate resilience.
Question and answer · CFR
‘A country to run and a region to take care of’
Asked why she had not sought the office of United Nations Secretary-General, Mottley replied that she had a country to run and a region to take care of. She also questioned whether the world wanted someone whose tongue was as heavy as hers. The quotation was reported by Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald and separately in Caribbean reporting of the CFR discussion.
Extracts are summarised from the document of record, which is linked above. Where a passage is disputed, this newsroom will publish the correction alongside the extract.