Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor – Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

In the pres­ence of the Venezue­lan Am­bas­sador to Trinidad and To­ba­go, Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo em­pha­sized the im­por­tance of co­op­er­a­tion over con­flict in main­tain­ing strong diplo­mat­ic re­la­tion­ships, amid height­ened ten­sions be­tween the two coun­tries.

Am­bas­sador Ál­varo En­rique Sánchez Cordero, the Dean of the Diplo­mat­ic Corps, was among sev­er­al res­i­dent and non-res­i­dent Heads of Mis­sion and their spous­es wel­comed to Pres­i­dent’s House on No­vem­ber 5 for the An­nu­al Heads of Mis­sions Din­ner. The event brought to­geth­er 31 mem­bers of the diplo­mat­ic corps ac­cred­it­ed to Trinidad and To­ba­go for an evening of “ca­ma­raderie, cul­tur­al ap­pre­ci­a­tion, and diplo­mat­ic good­will.”

Ac­cord­ing to a me­dia re­lease from the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent, Am­bas­sador Sánchez Cordero ex­pressed ap­pre­ci­a­tion to Pres­i­dent Kan­ga­loo and her hus­band, First Gen­tle­man Ker­wyn Gar­cia, for host­ing the event.

In her tra­di­tion­al toast to con­clude the evening, Pres­i­dent Kan­ga­loo reaf­firmed Trinidad and To­ba­go’s com­mit­ment to strong, re­spect­ful, and en­dur­ing in­ter­na­tion­al part­ner­ships.

She com­mend­ed at­ten­dees for em­body­ing the prin­ci­ple that “co­op­er­a­tion is al­ways bet­ter than con­flict; di­a­logue is al­ways bet­ter than dis­pu­ta­tion; and re­spect is al­ways bet­ter than re­gret.”

Ear­li­er on Mon­day, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so called for mean­ing­ful di­a­logue, fol­low­ing US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s in­di­ca­tion that talks could take place be­tween him­self and Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro. Per­sad-Bisses­sar told Guardian Me­dia that any di­a­logue must be ground­ed in hon­esty and trans­paren­cy, rather than the “con­tin­u­ous de­fence or de­nial of wrong­do­ing.”

“The best way to solve prob­lems is through di­a­logue. There are many press­ing is­sues that re­quire in­ter­ven­tion,” she added.

Ten­sions be­tween Maduro and Per­sad-Bisses­sar, how­ev­er, re­main high. Lat­er on Mon­day, Maduro ac­cused the T&T Prime Min­is­ter of act­ing be­hind cit­i­zens’ backs and al­low­ing US forces to use the coun­try as an “air­craft car­ri­er” against Venezuela.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go mort­gaged its seas to threat­en Venezuela, and the peo­ple of T&T are com­plete­ly against it. It is a dis­grace that the po­lice and mil­i­tary forces of that coun­try do not know where the Unit­ed States troops are,” Pres­i­dent Maduro claimed.

The US mil­i­tary, specif­i­cal­ly the 22nd Ma­rine Ex­pe­di­tionary Unit de­ployed un­der US South­ern Com­mand, is cur­rent­ly con­duct­ing train­ing ex­er­cis­es with the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar stressed that de­spite re­ports of po­ten­tial US-led land strikes against Venezuela, Trinidad and To­ba­go will not par­tic­i­pate in any such ag­gres­sion, nor al­low its ter­ri­to­ry to be used as a launch point for mil­i­tary ac­tion.