US Am­bas­sador Can­dace Bond made his­to­ry yes­ter­day as the first diplo­mat to re­ceive a na­tion­al award. Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo pre­sent­ed the Hum­ming­bird Gold in the sphere of Bi­lat­er­al and Diplo­mat­ic Re­la­tions at a spe­cial Na­tion­al Award cer­e­mo­ny.

As her tour of du­ty came to an end, Bond said her goal was al­ways to leave T&T as a “Tri­ni to the bone.”

“I’m in­cred­i­bly ho­n­oured to re­ceive this award and to be mak­ing his­to­ry to­day,” she told re­porters. “When I came here two years and two months ago, I fell in love with Trinidad and To­ba­go. Just the rich cul­ture, the her­itage, the re­silien­cy, and I was de­ter­mined to en­sure that we had a strong bi­lat­er­al re­la­tion­ship, but I was al­so de­ter­mined that by the time I left, I was go­ing to be Tri­ni to the bone, so I’ve got a while be­fore I’m Tri­ni to the bone, but I feel to­day is a great cel­e­bra­tion of our bi­lat­er­al re­la­tion­ship and just the re­la­tion­ship that I have been able to build with the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Bond came to Trinidad and To­ba­go in late 2022, halfway in­to Pres­i­dent Joe Biden’s term. The coun­try had not had an am­bas­sador for sev­er­al years. Trump ap­pointee, the late am­bas­sador Joseph Mon­del­lo, served be­tween Oc­to­ber 2018 and Jan­u­ary 2021. Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley and Mon­del­lo had a tense re­la­tion­ship, es­pe­cial­ly over this coun­try’s re­la­tion­ship with Venezuela, at a time when ten­sions were at an all-time high be­tween the US and Venezuela.

Bond’s ar­rival brought an al­most im­me­di­ate thaw­ing of ten­sions.

She dived in­to the cul­ture, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing Car­ni­val time, which she said she holds dear.

“When I’m asked what my favourite part of the coun­try is, I al­ways tell every­one, it’s the peo­ple. I have to thank all of you for wel­com­ing me so warm­ly and so kind­ly, and I’ve been able to trav­el not on­ly through­out this is­land, but al­so in To­ba­go, and I will al­ways car­ry you with me in my heart, and this is not the last time I’ll be here. I’ll be back for Car­ni­val, for sure,” Bond said.

Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Dr Amery Browne stressed that close­ness, call­ing Am­bas­sador Bond “ex­tra­or­di­nary.”

He said Bond’s pres­ence brought Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Unit­ed States clos­er to­geth­er than ever be­fore.

“Am­bas­sador Bond has re­al­ly brought with her a wealth of re­sources and con­tacts and fa­cil­i­ta­tion that has ben­e­fit­ed us across a range of sec­tors, par­tic­u­lar­ly in na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, some of the as­sets and ef­forts that we’ve been mak­ing to­geth­er, and par­tic­u­lar­ly in our en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty and en­er­gy de­vel­op­ment,” Browne said.

Bond list­ed some of her achieve­ments as strength­en­ing bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions and en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty ini­tia­tives like the Drag­on Field li­cence. There were talks on re­gion­al sta­bil­i­ty, cul­tur­al and ed­u­ca­tion­al ex­changes, and hu­man­i­tar­i­an sup­port, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, fos­ter­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion on crit­i­cal is­sues like se­cu­ri­ty and cli­mate re­silience.

The Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent notes the Hum­ming­bird Medal may be award­ed to any per­son, cit­i­zen as well as non-cit­i­zen, who has ren­dered loy­al and de­vot­ed ser­vice ben­e­fi­cial to Trinidad and To­ba­go in any field of hu­man en­deav­our or for gal­lantry or oth­er hu­mane ac­tion. It may be award­ed posthu­mous­ly, but a de­ceased re­cip­i­ent does not be­come a mem­ber of the So­ci­ety. It may be award­ed in Gold, Sil­ver, or Bronze in ac­cor­dance with the as­sessed lev­el of the ser­vice ren­dered.