Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment Bar­ry Padarath is­sued a state­ment to­day sup­port­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­gard­ing her re­cent com­ments on re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty and for­eign pol­i­cy. Padarath stat­ed the gov­ern­ment stands with Per­sad-Bisses­sar as she con­fronts na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty chal­lenges. He said the Prime Min­is­ter is demon­strat­ing that diplo­ma­cy in­volves bold lead­er­ship and strate­gic al­liances rather than pas­sive ob­ser­va­tion.

Padarath crit­i­cized For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, stat­ing he should re­main in re­tire­ment. He al­leged Row­ley spent ten years us­ing Cari­com to ad­vance per­son­al in­ter­ests. Padarath de­scribed Cari­com as a fo­rum that must ad­dress gun traf­fick­ing, drug traf­fick­ing, and hu­man traf­fick­ing. He stat­ed the gov­ern­ment will not sup­port tyran­ny or despo­tism.

Ac­cord­ing to the state­ment, Per­sad-Bisses­sar is re­defin­ing for­eign pol­i­cy through ac­tions in­tend­ed to pro­vide se­cu­ri­ty and eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits. Padarath claimed these ac­tions ad­dress is­sues re­sult­ing from ten years of PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion.

The state­ment not­ed that re­gion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty is not de­fined by view­ing the Caribbean as a zone of peace. Padarath said the Prime Min­is­ter is es­tab­lish­ing a “Trinidad and To­ba­go first” po­si­tion.