Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says she is “not wor­ried” about the diplo­mat­ic chal­lenges sur­round­ing her planned meet­ing with Venezuela’s act­ing Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez at the up­com­ing Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar con­firmed yes­ter­day that arrange­ments for the meet­ing have been fi­nalised, as she re­spond­ed to ques­tions from re­porters out­side Par­lia­ment about her up­com­ing trip to New York.

“That arrange­ment has been fi­nalised. We are sched­uled to meet lat­er in the week,” the Prime Min­is­ter said.

The meet­ing comes amid a year of diplo­mat­ic ten­sions be­tween both coun­tries, in­clud­ing Cara­cas de­clar­ing Per­sad-Bisses­sar per­sona non gra­ta amid ac­cu­sa­tions that Trinidad and To­ba­go was sup­port­ing Unit­ed States mil­i­tary ag­gres­sion against Venezuela.

Asked whether she in­tend­ed to raise that is­sue with Ro­dríguez, the Prime Min­is­ter said it was a mat­ter for the coun­tries’ re­spec­tive for­eign min­is­ters.

“I don’t think that’s for me to do. Those are diplo­mat­ic chal­lenges and my Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs and their For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ters,” she said.

“I’m not wor­ried, quite frankly.”

The planned en­gage­ment could mark a new chap­ter in re­la­tions be­tween the two neigh­bour­ing coun­tries, fol­low­ing months of diplo­mat­ic fall­out.

Ear­li­er this month, For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers led a one-day diplo­mat­ic del­e­ga­tion to Cara­cas, where he met with Venezue­lan For­eign Min­is­ter Félix Plasen­cia on Sep­tem­ber 4 to re­open for­mal com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar has al­so re­cent­ly sig­nalled her will­ing­ness to meet Ro­dríguez.

Last week, when asked by re­porters out­side the Hall of Jus­tice whether she had a mes­sage for the Venezue­lan act­ing pres­i­dent, the Prime Min­is­ter replied: “I love her. I look for­ward to meet­ing her.”

How­ev­er, the re­la­tion­ship has been marked by sharp ex­changes.

At the height of the dis­pute, Ro­dríguez launched a ver­bal at­tack on the Prime Min­is­ter, de­scrib­ing her as a woman “who crawls like a worm”.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar dis­missed the de­c­la­ra­tion as “use­less” and ac­cused Venezue­lan au­thor­i­ties of at­tempt­ing to bul­ly small­er neigh­bour­ing states.

UN trip sub­ject to

fi­nal ad­just­ments

Mean­while, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said her trav­el arrange­ments for the 81st ses­sion of the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly are still be­ing fi­nalised.

She ex­plained that Trinidad and To­ba­go’s up­com­ing role on the Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, along with sev­er­al bi­lat­er­al meet­ings, could af­fect the tim­ing of her ar­rival and de­par­ture.

The Prime Min­is­ter said she was ini­tial­ly sched­uled to ad­dress the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly on Sat­ur­day, but may now leave as ear­ly as Sun­day or Mon­day and re­turn to Trinidad and To­ba­go on the morn­ing of Sep­tem­ber 24.

She said she wants to be home in time for the Re­pub­lic Day awards, which she does not want to miss.

The 81st ses­sion of the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly is sched­uled for Sep­tem­ber 18 to 28.