Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

An­tigua and Bar­bu­da Prime Min­is­ter Gas­ton Browne has launched what ap­pears to be a sting­ing re­buke of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar over com­ments wide­ly in­ter­pret­ed as en­dors­ing si­lence and def­er­ence to­ward the Unit­ed States in ex­change for pro­tec­tion and visa ac­cess.

Speak­ing at a re­cent Christ­mas event, Per­sad-Bisses­sar crit­i­cised what she de­scribed as “se­lec­tive out­rage” to­ward the Unit­ed States by peo­ple who ben­e­fit from ac­cess to that coun­try, warn­ing that pub­lic crit­i­cism could car­ry con­se­quences.

In re­marks that have since re­ver­ber­at­ed across the re­gion, she point­ed to new­ly an­nounced US trav­el re­stric­tions af­fect­ing An­tigua and Bar­bu­da and Do­mini­ca.

“They bad­mouthed in the US, and guess what hap­pened? All their visas are re­strict­ed now. They have cut their visas,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said. “Which Tri­ni wants their visa cut? So be­have your­self. Un­der­stand where our help comes from. Un­der­stand who can pro­tect and de­fend Trinidad and To­ba­go. Right now, there is on­ly one coun­try in the world that can do it.”

The com­ments ig­nit­ed out­rage, prompt­ing Browne to fire back pub­licly in a Face­book post, ac­cus­ing a fel­low Cari­com leader of un­der­min­ing re­gion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty and spread­ing false­hoods.

“Cari­com was ad­vised by me that the is­sue was re­solved and that it would be su­per­flu­ous cir­cu­lat­ing this state­ment af­ter the fact, es­pe­cial­ly in con­sid­er­a­tion of their in­er­tia and ini­tial luke­warm sup­port,” Browne wrote.

He said it was lat­er brought to his at­ten­tion that one re­gion­al head had pub­licly ac­cused An­tigua and Bar­bu­da of “curs­ing the US ad­min­is­tra­tion”, an al­le­ga­tion he flat­ly re­ject­ed.

“I chal­lenge that leader to back her state­ment with facts,” Browne de­clared.

Browne warned that the episode ex­posed deep­er struc­tur­al fail­ures with­in the re­gion­al bloc.

“The in­er­tia and in­su­lar­i­ty with­in Cari­com con­tin­ue to un­der­mine the ef­fec­tive­ness of our in­te­gra­tion move­ment,” he said. “Yet, as a hard­core in­te­gra­tionist and an eter­nal op­ti­mist, I re­main hope­ful for a stronger and more ef­fec­tive Cari­com.”

The fall­out has al­so trig­gered in­tense do­mes­tic back­lash, with for­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young ac­cus­ing Per­sad-Bisses­sar of reck­less­ly torch­ing re­gion­al and bi­lat­er­al re­la­tion­ships.

“She has quick­ly and flip­pant­ly harmed Cari­com as an im­por­tant in­sti­tu­tion,” Young said. Point­ing di­rect­ly to Browne’s pub­lic re­sponse, he added, “She has dis­re­spect­ed and burnt im­por­tant bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions with our neigh­bours.”

Young warned that the Prime Min­is­ter’s rhetoric re­flect­ed a dan­ger­ous mis­un­der­stand­ing of diplo­ma­cy.

“Diplo­ma­cy is an art form that, when prop­er­ly un­der­stood and prac­tised, al­lows coun­tries to de­fend their in­ter­ests with­out hu­mil­i­at­ing al­lies or sac­ri­fic­ing long-term sov­er­eign­ty,” he said. “That art is clear­ly lost on the UNC gov­ern­ment, which con­tin­ues to wors­en Trinidad and To­ba­go’s po­si­tion dai­ly.”

For­mer UN am­bas­sador and for­mer Na­pari­ma MP Rod­ney Charles con­tend­ed that the Gov­ern­ment’s po­si­tion threat­ened to weak­en the re­gion­al body.

The Prime Min­is­ter has main­tained that Trinidad and To­ba­go has no role in the re­cent US block­ade of sanc­tioned oil ves­sels and that the co­op­er­a­tion with the US is aimed at stem­ming the nar­co, gun and hu­man traf­fick­ing.

How­ev­er, speak­ing with the Sun­day Guardian, Charles as­sert­ed that grow­ing iso­la­tion in the re­gion threat­ened sev­er­al sec­tors, in­clud­ing tourism.

He said, “Note that Trump is pres­sur­ing the ICC to grant him im­mu­ni­ty when he demits of­fice. Should we not, as co-con­spir­a­tors, be seek­ing sim­i­lar im­mu­ni­ties from a body which we helped es­tab­lish? How iron­ic? On so many fronts our for­eign pol­i­cy is in­im­i­cal to our medi­um- and long-term in­ter­ests that it ceas­es to be fun­ny. And if we are sac­ri­fic­ing so much for the US, should we not get tan­gi­ble re­wards like the US$40 bil­lion that Ar­genti­na got for do­ing much less than us?”