Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers says dis­cus­sions are con­tin­u­ing to ease ten­sions be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Cari­com, fol­low­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s pub­lic crit­i­cism of the re­gion­al body over the reap­point­ment process for Cari­com Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Dr Car­la Bar­nett.

Speak­ing dur­ing yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann’s, Sobers con­firmed that diplo­mat­ic en­gage­ment among re­gion­al lead­ers was on­go­ing to re­solve the mat­ter.

“Dis­cus­sions have pro­gressed and our Prime Min­is­ter has been in con­tact with Prime Min­is­ter (An­drew) Hol­ness, as you would well be aware,” Sobers said.

He said St Lu­cia Prime Min­is­ter Philip Pierre re­cent­ly vis­it­ed T&T, where the is­sue was al­so dis­cussed.

The diplo­mat­ic im­passe emerged af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar crit­i­cised Cari­com fol­low­ing rev­e­la­tions that Cari­com chair­man Dr Ter­rance Drew is­sued a state­ment de­fend­ing Bar­nett’s reap­point­ment — a state­ment Per­sad-Bisses­sar claimed was au­thored by Bar­nett her­self.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so con­demned what she de­scribed as the “de­lib­er­ate and dis­grace­ful si­lence” of Cari­com for­eign min­is­ters. She al­leged that min­is­ters had seen ev­i­dence, in the form of a What­sApp mes­sage, in­di­cat­ing that Sobers was dis­in­vit­ed from a re­treat in Nevis where Bar­nett was reap­point­ed.

Bar­nett’s cur­rent term is sched­uled to end in Au­gust.

In a state­ment post­ed to so­cial me­dia last month, Per­sad-Bisses­sar in­sist­ed T&T was not seek­ing to leave Cari­com, but ar­gued the re­gion­al or­gan­i­sa­tion could not con­tin­ue con­ceal­ing what she de­scribed as a “cor­rupt back­room op­er­a­tion that rots the or­gan­i­sa­tion to the detri­ment of the Caribbean peo­ple.”

Asked whether T&T was re­ceiv­ing sup­port from oth­er Cari­com mem­ber states yes­ter­day, Sobers ac­knowl­edged views with­in the re­gion­al bloc dif­fered.

“I would say that Trinidad and To­ba­go is in a par­tic­u­lar po­si­tion. I would say that there are per­sons who are in favour of that po­si­tion and those per­sons who are ad­her­ents, and they are en­ti­tled to do so,” he said.

De­spite the ten­sions, Sobers stressed that T&T re­mains com­mit­ted to Cari­com and be­lieves the dis­pute will even­tu­al­ly be re­solved.

“As I said be­fore, we are fam­i­ly. We will have dis­agree­ments, but there is no will, there is no rhetoric that we will ever put out there that we would leave Cari­com or any­thing like that. This sit­u­a­tion will be set­tled and it will pass,” he said.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions about Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s ear­li­er in­di­ca­tion that Gov­ern­ment was con­sid­er­ing re­duc­ing fund­ing to Cari­com, he said, “Con­sid­er­a­tion is al­ways be­ing giv­en to cut fund­ing be­cause we want to save the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go mon­ey.”

How­ev­er, he said Gov­ern­ment’s con­cerns ex­tend be­yond fi­nances.

“As it per­tains to Cari­com, the po­si­tion is we be­lieve that a bet­ter struc­tured, bet­ter or­gan­ised, more ef­fi­cient, more ef­fec­tive Cari­com will re­dound to the ben­e­fit of all Caribbean cit­i­zens,” Sobers said.

“And the man­ner in which we be­lieve that should be done in­volves look­ing at spend­ing, yes, but it al­so in­volves look­ing at how some of these or­gans of Cari­com run and op­er­ate.”

Sobers al­so pro­vid­ed an up­date on Gov­ern­ment’s pro­posed diplo­mat­ic mis­sion to Venezuela, af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced last month that a del­e­ga­tion would trav­el to Cara­cas to se­cure T&T’s “just share” of oil and gas re­sources.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go’s en­gage­ment with Venezuela is a reignit­ing of diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions. The re­la­tions be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Venezuela, in my re­spect­ful opin­ion and the Gov­ern­ment’s opin­ion, have nev­er run cold,” Sobers said.

He not­ed that both coun­tries have main­tained diplo­mat­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tion through­out re­cent pe­ri­ods of ten­sion.

“Their em­bassy has al­ways been open and op­er­at­ed here as per usu­al and our em­bassy in Cara­cas has al­ways op­er­at­ed with­out any ha­rass­ment at all,” he said, stress­ing that the process in­volved far more than a sym­bol­ic diplo­mat­ic vis­it.

“This is not some­body jump­ing on a plane to take a self­ie with the act­ing Pres­i­dent of Venezuela and post­ing it up and say­ing they have achieved some­thing.

“Ac­tu­al diplo­mat­ic dis­cus­sions re­quire sev­er­al box­es to be ticked first so that when you go, you es­sen­tial­ly re-en­gi­neer the re­sponse that you want, and that is what we are cur­rent­ly do­ing,” he said.

Sobers said T&T has al­ready sent a diplo­mat­ic note to Venezuela out­lin­ing the is­sues it wish­es to dis­cuss, with Cara­cas re­spond­ing pos­i­tive­ly.

“At this point in time, it is an ac­tive work in progress and we are ex­treme­ly con­fi­dent about the out­comes be­cause we have good re­la­tions with mem­bers of the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic and their gov­ern­ment.”

Asked whether a time­line had been es­tab­lished for the vis­it, Sobers said Gov­ern­ment did not in­tend to rush the process, giv­en the broad range of is­sues to be ad­dressed.

“There are some very key im­por­tant is­sues that the Gov­ern­ment is ex­treme­ly fo­cused on. Yes, en­er­gy is one of them, but trade is al­so im­por­tant to us,” he said,

Sobers added that dis­cus­sions are al­so ex­pect­ed to cov­er mar­itime is­sues, bor­der se­cu­ri­ty and fish­eries.