KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter/Pro­duc­er

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

BEI­JING, CHI­NA—Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is un­both­ered by re­gion­al diplo­mats who don’t agree with her views on the Caribbean.

These in­clude sev­er­al Caribbean am­bas­sadors sta­tioned in Chi­na who spoke out fol­low­ing Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s re­cent com­ments that the Caribbean is not a “zone of peace.”

The re­marks, which have sparked de­bate across the re­gion, have now drawn di­rect re­spons­es from diplo­mat­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tives abroad who in­sist the Caribbean re­mains root­ed in sta­bil­i­ty and co-op­er­a­tion.

Speak­ing with Guardian me­dia at the launch of the Third Chi­na’s Pol­i­cy Pa­per on Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean in Bei­jing yes­ter­day, the diplo­mats all re­ject­ed the claim that the re­gion isn’t a zone of peace.

Fol­low­ing the launch, Do­mini­ca’s Am­bas­sador to Chi­na Mar­tin Charles said, “Cari­com has al­ways been a re­li­able part­ner for all mem­ber states in the Caribbean. In so far as the zone of peace, Cari­com has de­clared this, and they have un­der­pinned that state­ment not too long ago. Do­mini­ca, Grena­da and all the coun­tries of the Caribbean still main­tain that the Caribbean is a zone of peace and ir­re­spec­tive of what some peo­ple may say or think, the Caribbean re­mains a zone of peace, and we want it to re­main as just that.”

Sim­i­lar­ly, Chair of the Cau­cus of Caribbean Em­bassies and Am­bas­sador to Grena­da in Chi­na Ian Mar­shall said, “Tra­di­tion­al­ly it has been, and I be­lieve it is (a zone of peace).”

One diplo­mat post­ed to Venezuela said he be­lieves the sit­u­a­tion can be worked out.

Grena­da’s am­bas­sador to Venezuela Has­san Hadeed said, “The sit­u­a­tion is very volatile, but at the same time, I think it could be re­solved if there is good in­ten­tion on both sides. I al­ways be­lieve in diplo­ma­cy, but it is very im­por­tant for the Caribbean to re­main a zone of peace.

When con­tact­ed for a com­ment on the mat­ter, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “You are wast­ing my time with this rub­bish. En­joy your evening.”

Oth­er Caribbean rep­re­sen­ta­tives said such pub­lic dis­agree­ments risk sow­ing con­fu­sion and over­shad­ow­ing the re­gion’s strengths.

The uni­fied stance comes at a time when Caribbean na­tion­als liv­ing in Chi­na say they are pay­ing close at­ten­tion to po­lit­i­cal sig­nals from home.