Vijay Kumar Chattu was selected for the ACUNS Annual Workshop

Vijay Kumar Chattu was selected for the 2026 ACUNS Annual Workshop on International Organization Studies, organized by the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) in cooperation with UNU-CRIS Belgium and hosted by Narxoz University, Almaty, Kazakhstan, from 21-28 June 2026. The workshop theme was “The Regional Turn in Global Governance? Regionalism, Multilateralism, and the Future of Shared Global Responsibility.” Dr. Chattu participated in this global platform, emphasizing the “Emerging aspects of regionalism and multilateralism” in the context of non-communicable diseases and global health diplomacy. He presented his research paper entitled “Port of Spain Summit Declaration: A precursor to the WHO Framework for Noncommunicable Diseases Prevention.” The research highlights that the Caribbean Community’s leadership, exemplified by the ‘Port of Spain Summit Declaration’ (POSSD), has established a robust framework to address the interconnected health, environmental, and social challenges faced by small island developing states. This study explores the evolving role of regional health diplomacy in preventing chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and its influence on global policy formulation. The study uses the summative global governance (SGG) conceptual framework as its foundation and examines the POSSD through this lens. The study explores the scope, purpose, and variables of global health diplomacy in addressing the challenges posed by NCDs. It also unpacks how NCDs are framed and how governance frameworks emerged through regional cooperation. It reaffirms that Global Health Diplomacy can be highly effective in multilateral contexts, helping reach consensus on policy development to promote health, equity, and health security. The study concludes that POSSD was successfully negotiated through regional health diplomacy, which served as a precursor to the WHO’s global framework for NCD prevention.