RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

T&T’s de­ci­sion to co-sign a joint state­ment with the Unit­ed States and sev­er­al Latin Amer­i­can coun­tries con­grat­u­lat­ing Bo­livia’s new pres­i­dent has sparked de­bate about the di­rec­tion of T&T’s for­eign pol­i­cy and its align­ment with­in Cari­com.

For­mer Ja­maican am­bas­sador and in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions con­sul­tant Cur­tis Ward de­scribed the move as “un­usu­al and prece­dent-set­ting.”

“I find this align­ment of a small num­ber of con­ser­v­a­tive gov­ern­ments — which the T&T gov­ern­ment has joined — to con­grat­u­late the elec­tion of a cen­tre-right con­ser­v­a­tive gov­ern­ment in Bo­livia, should give oth­er Cari­com mem­bers pause,” Ward said.

“While it is nor­mal in diplo­mat­ic cir­cles to con­grat­u­late a suc­cess­ful can­di­date, it is high­ly un­usu­al — and prob­a­bly un­prece­dent­ed — for a joint state­ment to be is­sued by like-mind­ed gov­ern­ments. Most coun­tries don’t even go that far.”

Ward sug­gest­ed the de­ci­sion “sig­nals fur­ther ev­i­dence of sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Unit­ed States” and could rep­re­sent “an ero­sion of a uni­fied for­eign pol­i­cy with­in Cari­com.”

“This rais­es the ques­tion of whether T&T’s for­eign pol­i­cy is be­ing de­ter­mined in Wash­ing­ton and not in Port-of-Spain,” he said. “It’s some­thing that must be watched close­ly, es­pe­cial­ly if the gov­ern­ment is seek­ing US favour for the waiv­er of sanc­tions on Venezuela to al­low the Drag­on Gas project to pro­ceed.”

In­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions ex­pert Dr An­tho­ny Bryant agreed that the joint state­ment re­flects a new lev­el of align­ment with Wash­ing­ton.

“T&T’s joint state­ment on the Bo­li­vian elec­tion sig­nals its close re­la­tion­ship with the US,” Bryant said. “It al­so shows that T&T is be­com­ing more aligned with US di­rec­tives. This is a marked de­par­ture from our tra­di­tion­al pol­i­cy of neu­tral­i­ty — be­ing friends of all and en­e­mies of none. Words and ac­tions have reper­cus­sions.”

For­mer for­eign af­fairs min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne went fur­ther, ac­cus­ing the Gov­ern­ment of un­der­min­ing T&T’s long-stand­ing tra­di­tion of sov­er­eign diplo­ma­cy.

“Every day there are fur­ther wor­ry­ing signs that this Gov­ern­ment has farmed out the for­eign pol­i­cy of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Browne said. “Since in­de­pen­dence, the nor­mal prac­tice has been for our Prime Min­is­ter to is­sue a let­ter of con­grat­u­la­tions af­ter con­sul­ta­tions among Cari­com heads.”

He added, “In­stead, our Gov­ern­ment co-signed a state­ment draft­ed and is­sued by the US De­part­ment of State — a state­ment that even com­ments on in­ter­nal po­lit­i­cal mat­ters with­in Bo­livia. This is not some­thing Trinidad and To­ba­go has as­so­ci­at­ed it­self with since in­de­pen­dence.”

Browne warned that the move rep­re­sents “a dan­ger­ous de­par­ture from Cari­com uni­ty” and could lead to “fur­ther iso­la­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go from its re­gion­al part­ners.”

Se­nior in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions ex­pert Dr An­tho­ny Gon­za­les of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies urged the Gov­ern­ment to pur­sue a pol­i­cy of “pos­i­tive non-align­ment,” bal­anc­ing na­tion­al in­ter­ests with­out be­com­ing en­tan­gled in glob­al pow­er strug­gles.

“The Gov­ern­ment is still say­ing it wants to talk to Venezuela,” Gon­za­les not­ed. “You can­not have good re­la­tions with Venezuela if you ap­pear hos­tile or sup­port­ive of any in­va­sion.”

While ac­knowl­edg­ing that T&T’s re­cent ac­tions dif­fer from Cari­com’s “Zone of Peace” doc­trine, Gon­za­les said he does not ex­pect a last­ing rift with­in the re­gion­al bloc.

“Cari­com has dis­agree­ments on many things,” he said. “I don’t think this will make much of a dif­fer­ence in our long-term re­la­tion­ships.”

How­ev­er, he cau­tioned that main­tain­ing co­op­er­a­tion with both the US and Venezuela re­mains cru­cial for man­ag­ing mi­gra­tion, re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty, and en­er­gy projects — in­clud­ing the long-de­layed Drag­on Gas Project.

“If that re­la­tion­ship breaks down, we will have prob­lems,” Gon­za­les said. “It’s a del­i­cate bal­anc­ing act — try­ing to sat­is­fy both sides while pro­tect­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s in­ter­ests.”

Back­ground: The Joint State­ment

On Oc­to­ber 21, the US De­part­ment of State is­sued a re­lease — co-signed by Ar­genti­na, Cos­ta Ri­ca, the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Ecuador, El Sal­vador, Pana­ma, Paraguay, T&T, and the Unit­ed States — con­grat­u­lat­ing Pres­i­dent-elect Ro­dri­go Paz Pereira on his elec­tion vic­to­ry in Bo­livia.

The state­ment pledged that Wash­ing­ton and its part­ners would “work close­ly with the new pres­i­dent to ad­dress re­gion­al and glob­al chal­lenges.”

How­ev­er, the Gov­ern­ment of T&T has not is­sued an in­di­vid­ual state­ment, and For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers has not re­spond­ed to mul­ti­ple re­quests for com­ment.