Our coun­try is cur­rent­ly host­ing the leader of the world’s largest democ­ra­cy, In­dia Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Mo­di of Bharat, whose vi­sion has helped shape one of the world’s fastest-grow­ing economies.

His of­fi­cial vis­it comes at a cru­cial time, when small na­tions like ours seek stronger glob­al part­ner­ships to boost re­silience, tech­nol­o­gy ac­cess, and eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion.

But be­yond the cer­e­mo­ni­al pageantry, what does this vis­it tru­ly mean for T&T? The an­swer lies in un­der­stand­ing not on­ly our shared past but the op­por­tu­ni­ties of the fu­ture.

Since the ar­rival of In­di­an in­den­tured labour­ers more than 180 years ago, the bond be­tween T&T and In­dia has been one root­ed in cul­tur­al, an­ces­tral and emo­tion­al ties. As for­mer In­dia Prime Min­is­ter In­di­ra Gand­hi said dur­ing her his­toric vis­it in 1968, “There is a bridge link­ing our two coun­tries, a strong bridge of friend­ship. I hope it will for­ev­er re­main strong.”

That bridge has since evolved be­yond cul­ture and kin­ship in­to one of mean­ing­ful co­op­er­a­tion—seen in schol­ar­ships, tech­ni­cal train­ing, diplo­mat­ic ex­changes, and mu­tu­al sup­port on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage.

Un­der Mo­di’s lead­er­ship, In­dia has reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to the Glob­al South, and now, that bridge may be poised for ex­pan­sion. In­dia is present­ly re­cal­i­brat­ing its for­eign pol­i­cy op­tions in these wa­ver­ing eco­nom­ic times, fu­elled by the PO­TUS tar­iff changes.

Mo­di has em­barked on an eight-day, five-na­tion diplo­mat­ic tour with vis­its to Ghana, T&T, Ar­genti­na, Brazil, and Namib­ia.

What can we gain?

1. Ed­u­ca­tion and train­ing

In­dia has al­ready pro­vid­ed T&T cit­i­zens with ac­cess to aca­d­e­m­ic and pro­fes­sion­al de­vel­op­ment through:

• The Know In­dia Pro­gramme (KIP) – ex­pos­ing young Trinida­di­ans to mod­ern In­dia’s cul­ture, econ­o­my, and in­no­va­tions.

• IC­CR schol­ar­ships – these of­fer full uni­ver­si­ty schol­ar­ships in In­dia’s high­ly re­gard­ed in­sti­tu­tions.

• ITEC train­ing – tech­ni­cal and lead­er­ship pro­grammes in ar­eas like cli­mate change, re­new­able en­er­gy, en­tre­pre­neur­ship, and in­for­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy.

Mo­di’s vis­it is ex­pect­ed to ex­plore ex­pand­ing these of­fer­ings and cre­at­ing new ones tai­lored to T&T’s de­vel­op­men­tal goals.

2. Eco­nom­ic and trade part­ner­ships

In­dia is now the world’s fourth-largest econ­o­my. Its phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal, re­new­able en­er­gy, dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy, and space in­dus­tries are world-class. Mo­di’s mul­ti-na­tion tour—cov­er­ing Africa and Latin Amer­i­ca—has a clear goal: a re­cal­i­bra­tion of glob­al al­liances to build strate­gic trade part­ner­ships and se­cur­ing crit­i­cal min­er­al sup­ply chains. In­dia has al­ready made progress in Ar­genti­na on min­er­al part­ner­ships and is ex­plor­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion with African na­tions like Ghana and Namib­ia to counter sup­ply con­straints from Chi­na. In­dia’s state-owned firms like Khanij Bidesh In­dia Ltd and NMDC Ltd, are ac­tive­ly pur­su­ing joint ven­tures and min­ing con­ces­sions.

For T&T, this is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to po­si­tion our­selves as a gate­way for In­di­an in­vest­ment in­to the Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­ca. It’s al­so a chance to ex­plore joint ven­tures in ICT, green tech­nol­o­gy, and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals—di­ver­si­fy­ing our econ­o­my be­yond oil and gas.

3. Cul­tur­al diplo­ma­cy and soft pow­er

In­dia con­tin­ues to ex­port cul­ture as pow­er­ful­ly as it does tech­nol­o­gy—from Bol­ly­wood to Bharatanatyam, from Ayurve­da to ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence. Mo­di’s vis­it could am­pli­fy bi­lat­er­al cul­tur­al ex­changes, like the 2017 vis­it of the Ut­tar Pradesh Folk Dance Group to Trinidad or our artists’ vis­its to In­dia.

These ini­tia­tives strength­en na­tion­al iden­ti­ty, sup­port the cre­ative sec­tor, and nur­ture peo­ple-to-peo­ple diplo­ma­cy—some­thing vi­tal for a small mul­ti­cul­tur­al na­tion like ours.

4. Strate­gic and diplo­mat­ic co­op­er­a­tion

In­dia’s stance on glob­al is­sues—from the Rus­sia-Ukraine war to Mid­dle East­ern sta­bil­i­ty—is guid­ed by prag­ma­tism and peace.

Mo­di has diplo­mat­i­cal­ly han­dled the Iran-Is­rael con­flict. In­dia could not af­ford to take sides. Over 40 per cent of In­dia’s crude oil and nat­ur­al gas im­ports come through the Strait of Hor­muz. Con­flict could lead to a surge in oil prices, which would push up in­fla­tion and slow In­dia’s eco­nom­ic growth, and al­so di­min­ish fi­nances from the di­as­po­ra of 9 mil­lion In­di­ans in the Gulf, who send back 40 per cent of In­dia’s $129 bil­lion glob­al re­mit­tances. This can wipe out the strides In­dia has made in keep­ing in­fla­tion un­der 6 per cent.

T&T, as a small is­land state vul­ner­a­ble to glob­al shocks, can ben­e­fit from In­dia’s bal­anced diplo­ma­cy and sup­port in mul­ti­lat­er­al fo­rums like the UN and Com­mon­wealth, pro­tect­ing our in­ter­ests on is­sues like cli­mate fi­nance, food se­cu­ri­ty, and fair-trade ac­cess.

Crit­ics may ask, “What has Mo­di done for us?” But per­haps the bet­ter ques­tion is: Are we ready to take the op­por­tu­ni­ties al­ready ex­tend­ed—and the ones now open­ing be­fore us?

This vis­it is more than sym­bol­ic. It’s a mo­ment of pos­si­bil­i­ty. If seized wise­ly, it could help T&T un­lock new growth, deep­er glob­al rel­e­vance, and a stronger sense of its place in the world.

Let’s meet that mo­ment with vi­sion, not hes­i­ta­tion.