Caricom no longer a reliable partner, says T&T PM

(Trinidad Express) Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced yesterday that Trinidad and Tobago will be realigning its foreign policy.

She said her Government no longer views Caricom as a reliable partner.

“I do not consider Caricom a reliable partner and over the next couple years there will be a significant realignment of our foreign policy. These changes are necessary for improving our economic and physical security,” said Persad-Bissessar as she responded to questions from the Express about Government’s isolated stance in support of the United States’ war on drug cartels.

Her position is in sharp contrast with other Caricom nations that have called for the region to remain a zone of peace and have decried the show of US military firepower in Caribbean waters.

The Prime Minister stated that Trinidad and Tobago will seek to forge new alliances with partners around the world.

“We will mainly focus on increasing linkages and co-operation with countries outside the region. We need to look for new partners in trade, investment and security,” she said. Persad-Bissessar reiterated the people of Trinidad and Tobago came first, even as cordial relations are maintained with Caricom.

“The lives and livelihoods of Trinidad and Tobago citizens are my top priority. I maintain cordial relations with all my Caricom colleagues. Our prayers are with the people of Jamaica at this time. Today we are continuing arrangements for relief supplies to be sent there,” she added.

The Prime Minister has supported what the United States’ says are it efforts to battle drug cartels and its deployment of military vessels and personnel including nearly a dozen warships, fighter jets, supersonic bombers, and a submarine.

The US has also ordered the world’s largest warship, the USS Gerald Ford, to waters near Venezuela.

On October 18, Caricom issued a statement, noting its discussions on the increased security build-up in the Caribbean and the potential impacts on member states.

Trinidad and Tobago, however, did not sign onto the communiqué, which reaffirmed the principle of maintaining the Caribbean as a “Zone of Peace” and emphasised dialogue and engagement toward the peaceful resolution of disputes.

Instead, Trinidad and Tobago reserved its position.

The Prime Minister argued that some Caricom states hold differing interpretations of what constitutes a “zone of peace”.

She said Trinidad and Tobago is not one.

“Maybe there is a zone of peace in some of those other Caricom neighbours because they are further North. We are the closest here to the mainland and of course we are being hit—I think really seriously hit—with the drug trafficking, the gangs, the cartels, the gunrunning. That is not happening in their countries,” she said.

Persad-Bissessar pointed out that other island nations are not grappling with the same level of violent crime.

“They are not having 600 murders in a year, you know. Their crime is not what is happening in Trinidad and Tobago. So they are saying it’s a zone of peace, keep a zone of peace, but Trinidad and Tobago is definitely not a zone of peace. We have witnessed too many murders, too much crime and too much drug running, human trafficking and gun running to Trinidad and Tobago. So Caricom is proven to be an unreliable partner in some regards because they chose Venezuela over Trinidad and that is something we need to remember,” she said.

Caricom itself has been divided over its stance on Venezuela, with several member states expressing support for President Nicolás Maduro.

In August, the Heads of State and Government of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) expressed their “strongest and total support” for Maduro, stating that he was once again facing a “brutal offensive of political and judicial persecution promoted by the United States”.

Among the participating Caricom members in that meeting were Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.