Box­ing Day has long been a time of ease, laugh­ter and to­geth­er­ness in Trinidad and To­ba­go, re­flect­ing a na­tion­al spir­it that val­ues fel­low­ship and shared joy. As the great ca­lyp­son­ian Ald­wyn “Lord Kitch­en­er” Roberts once ob­served, the love of a good “lime” runs deep in our cul­ture, from the youngest among us to the old­est.

That spir­it is on full dis­play to­day, as many take the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­lax—whether at the beach, by the riv­er, around a bar­be­cue pit, or sim­ply in the com­pa­ny of fam­i­ly and friends. The fa­mil­iar sight of busy roads, mu­sic in the air and fes­tive gath­er­ings is a re­minder of how Trin­bag­o­ni­ans tra­di­tion­al­ly place their cares aside, even if on­ly briefly, dur­ing this fes­tive time of the year.

At the same time, there is a shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for every­one to ex­er­cise mod­er­a­tion and good judge­ment dur­ing this pe­ri­od, recog­nis­ing that the con­se­quences of ex­cess can be se­ri­ous.

Be­yond the cel­e­bra­tions, how­ev­er, there is a broad­er in­ter­na­tion­al en­vi­ron­ment that de­serves thought­ful at­ten­tion as the year draws to a close. Ris­ing ten­sions be­tween Wash­ing­ton and Cara­cas present un­cer­tain­ties for the re­gion, and for Trinidad and To­ba­go in par­tic­u­lar, giv­en our ge­o­graph­ic lo­ca­tion and eco­nom­ic in­ter­ests.

In nav­i­gat­ing this com­plex sit­u­a­tion, the Gov­ern­ment, led by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, has tak­en an ap­proach that places em­pha­sis on main­tain­ing strong re­la­tions with the Unit­ed States, a long­stand­ing and im­por­tant trad­ing part­ner.

From the Gov­ern­ment’s per­spec­tive, this po­si­tion re­flects an as­sess­ment of na­tion­al in­ter­est, par­tic­u­lar­ly the val­ue of sta­ble and pro­duc­tive eco­nom­ic ties with a ma­jor glob­al pow­er dur­ing un­cer­tain times.

At the same time, the Gov­ern­ment has ac­knowl­edged the chal­lenges that arise from strained re­la­tions with Venezuela. De­vel­op­ments such as the sus­pen­sion of en­er­gy co­op­er­a­tion and Venezuela’s re­vival of long­stand­ing claims to T&T ter­ri­to­ry un­der­score the need for care­ful, mea­sured diplo­ma­cy.

In this con­text, the Prime Min­is­ter has not­ed the coun­try’s re­liance on in­ter­na­tion­al part­ner­ships to safe­guard its se­cu­ri­ty should re­gion­al ten­sions es­ca­late.

As the sit­u­a­tion evolves, there is room for con­tin­ued di­a­logue and pru­dence. The pri­or­i­ty for Trinidad and To­ba­go must, there­fore, re­main the avoid­ance of un­nec­es­sary es­ca­la­tion, while seek­ing to man­age re­la­tion­ships in a way that pro­tects na­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty and re­gion­al peace. This calls for re­straint, clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion and a steady fo­cus on de-es­ca­la­tion wher­ev­er pos­si­ble.

In the spir­it of the sea­son, where the world cel­e­brates the birth of Je­sus Christ—the Son of Peace - this is a mo­ment for calm, diplo­ma­cy and sound judge­ment as the coun­try pre­pares for the year ahead.