Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Sean Sobers says this coun­try’s re­la­tion­ship with its Cari­com neigh­bour, St Vin­cent and the Grenadines, re­mains cor­dial de­spite a re­cent dis­pute over prop­er­ties owned by the rel­a­tives of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ralph Gondalves.

Speak­ing dur­ing a news con­fer­ence yes­ter­day at his St Clair of­fice, Sobers was asked about re­la­tions be­tween T&T and St Vin­cent and the Grenadines. He said the two coun­tries still had cor­dial re­la­tions.

This week, Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing, Anil Roberts, took to his Dou­bles and Cof­fee pro­gramme on Face­book and ac­cused the St Vin­cent PM of be­ing dis­re­spect­ful to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. He claimed the Gon­salves fam­i­ly re­ceived “great ben­e­fits” from the for­mer PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion and dis­played HDC doc­u­ments for three Vic­to­ria Keyes apart­ments owned by his wife, son, and daugh­ter.

With this coun­try cam­paign­ing for a non-per­ma­nent seat on the Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, Sobers said he was not con­cerned that T&T’s chances of be­ing con­firmed would be im­pact­ed by any re­cent de­vel­op­ments.

“Cari­com has giv­en its sup­port.”

“The way in which Cari­com votes, we vote as a block; once we in­di­cate we are giv­ing sup­port, all coun­tries give sup­port,” he said.

Mean­while, the For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter said he was not un­aware if Venezue­lan am­bas­sador to T&T Ál­varo Sánchez Cordero was dis­in­vit­ed from a Re­mem­brance Day wreath-lay­ing cer­e­mo­ny.

Last week­end, there were re­ports that Cordero was dis­in­vit­ed from the cer­e­mo­ny, which ho­n­oured the sol­diers of T&T who died dur­ing World Wars I and II.

Re­spond­ing to these claims, Sobers jok­ing­ly ques­tioned if he him­self was al­so dis­in­vit­ed, as he did not at­tend the cer­e­mo­ny.

But when pressed fur­ther for an an­swer, Sobers ad­mit­ted that he did not know.

“I don’t know, so I wouldn’t be able to an­swer,” he said.

When Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed the Am­bas­sador via What­sApp yes­ter­day, Cordero de­clined to com­ment.