Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

A day af­ter Venezuela sus­pend­ed gas agree­ments with the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress Gov­ern­ment and hours be­fore it de­clared Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar per­sona non gra­ta, Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les yes­ter­day re­ceived a cour­tesy call from Venezuela’s Am­bas­sador to T&T Ál­varo En­rique Sánchez Cordero.

And dis­cus­sions in­clud­ed the modus operan­di in re­solv­ing re­gion­al is­sues, such as en­er­gy co­op­er­a­tion, mi­gra­tion, and mar­itime se­cu­ri­ty.

Beck­les has al­so filed a mo­tion for de­bate in Par­lia­ment con­demn­ing Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s re­cent in­flam­ma­to­ry state­ments and Beck­les wants Gov­ern­ment to reaf­firm T&T’s com­mit­ment to Cari­com.

The in­for­ma­tion was is­sued by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) yes­ter­day.

The meet­ing with Venezuela’s am­bas­sador took place against the back­drop of re­cent re­gion­al de­vel­op­ments, in­clud­ing US-Venezue­lan ten­sion and T&T-Venezue­lan is­sues.

The PNM stat­ed that Beck­les un­der­scored that T&T has al­ways up­held a prin­ci­pled for­eign pol­i­cy ground­ed in re­spect for in­ter­na­tion­al law, di­a­logue and the main­te­nance of the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace: a prin­ci­ple pro­mot­ing con­flict res­o­lu­tion, me­di­a­tion, and non-in­ter­fer­ence among sov­er­eign states.

She reaf­firmed that these foun­da­tions have guid­ed T&T’s ap­proach to diplo­ma­cy since in­de­pen­dence.

“Dis­cus­sions there­fore cov­ered the im­por­tance of open com­mu­ni­ca­tion, trans­paren­cy, and diplo­ma­cy in re­solv­ing com­plex re­gion­al is­sues, par­tic­u­lar­ly those re­lat­ed to en­er­gy co­op­er­a­tion, mi­gra­tion, and mar­itime se­cu­ri­ty.”

Beck­les re­it­er­at­ed the PNM’s com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing T&T’s na­tion­al in­ter­ests while sup­port­ing peace­ful en­gage­ment and ad­her­ence to in­ter­na­tion­al norms.

She stressed the PNM’s his­tor­i­cal­ly strong and re­spect­ful re­la­tions with Venezuela, dat­ing back to the es­tab­lish­ment of diplo­mat­ic ties in 1962 un­der Dr Er­ic Williams’ lead­er­ship.

Cordero con­grat­u­lat­ed Beck­les on her lead­er­ship of the Op­po­si­tion. He high­light­ed Venezuela’s ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the long­stand­ing friend­ship be­tween the two na­tions. He al­so cit­ed cul­tur­al and his­tor­i­cal bonds of both, re­flect­ing on shared tra­di­tions such as parang and cross-cul­tur­al ex­changes.

Both par­ties reaf­firmed a shared com­mit­ment to peace, mu­tu­al re­spect, and con­struc­tive di­a­logue as the foun­da­tion for con­tin­ued bi­lat­er­al co­op­er­a­tion.

The PNM stat­ed that the meet­ing con­clud­ed with a mes­sage of hope for the preser­va­tion of re­gion­al sta­bil­i­ty, deep­ened cul­tur­al ties, and en­dur­ing friend­ship be­tween the peo­ples of both coun­tries.

Mean­while, Beck­les’s mo­tion on Par­lia­ment’s agen­da for Fri­day not­ed that re­cent de­vel­op­ments have giv­en rise to an im­passe be­tween T&T and Venezuela, “risk­ing ad­verse con­se­quences for our econ­o­my, na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, and in­ter­na­tion­al stand­ing.”

The PNM said the con­duct of T&T’s for­eign re­la­tions is vest­ed in the Ex­ec­u­tive and must be ex­er­cised in ac­cor­dance with the Con­sti­tu­tion, the Unit­ed Na­tions Char­ter and the prin­ci­ples of peace­ful set­tle­ment of dis­putes, re­spect for sov­er­eign­ty, non-in­ter­ven­tion and pru­dent diplo­ma­cy.

It not­ed that T&T’s na­tion­al in­ter­ests—in­clud­ing cit­i­zen safe­ty, re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty, trade, avi­a­tion, fish­eries, and en­er­gy co­op­er­a­tion—are di­rect­ly af­fect­ed by re­la­tions with Venezuela.

The mo­tion stat­ed that pub­lic state­ments at­trib­uted to the Prime Min­is­ter re­gard­ing these de­vel­op­ments are viewed as in­flam­ma­to­ry and in­ju­ri­ous to T&T’s rep­u­ta­tion and in­ter­ests, gen­er­at­ing pub­lic con­cern and diplo­mat­ic un­ease. It con­demned the PM’s in­flam­ma­to­ry state­ments as iso­lat­ing T&T and harm­ing its stand­ing and in­ter­ests.

The mo­tion not­ed that Cari­com has long ad­vanced a col­lec­tive ap­proach to ex­ter­nal re­la­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly se­cu­ri­ty chal­lenges, to en­sure the re­gion re­mains a zone of peace - and this may be in­ter­pret­ed to be at vari­ance with the PM’s state­ments

It al­so called for T&T’s for­eign pol­i­cy to be co­her­ent, mea­sured, and aligned with the long-stand­ing tra­di­tions of Caribbean diplo­ma­cy and in­ter­na­tion­al law. The PNM will al­so call on Gov­ern­ment to reaf­firm T&T’s com­mit­ment to Cari­com and to the up­hold­ing of in­ter­na­tion­al law.