On December 10, 2024, then National Security minister Fitzgerald Hinds signed an amended SOFA agreement with the United States. The details of this amended agreement have, to my knowledge, not been disclosed to the public, leading to much speculation about the impact of this agreement on the present state of affairs.
To deal with this topic this week, I chose to interview a subject matter expert rather than rely on my layman’s understanding of military law. That expert is Dr Sanjay Badri-Maharaj.
Dr Badri-Maharaj obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from King’s College, London, with a focus on Weapons of Mass Destruction. He holds an LLM in Maritime Law and has been a consultant for the Ministry of National Security in T&T. Badri-Maharaj is the author of four books, including one on the 1990 Jamaat-al-attempted Muslimeen coup.
Q: The SOFA is the treaty allowing the USS Gravely and other US forces to dock, correct?
A: No. Docking can be done at any time following certain protocols. SOFA is a status of forces agreement, and it’s not a basing agreement, which is something completely different. It is an agreement that exists between two countries, usually the United States and someone else, which establishes the legal standing of foreign military forces in the country, what rights they have, what obligations they have, who has jurisdiction, what prosecution would be permitted for crimes off the base and who is responsible for damages caused by military personnel. So, say for example, US forces are driving a truck and it hits a wall, someone has to be liable for that.
Or you know, there are cases where they may get into an accident. So, all these things need to be established in a status of forces agreement.
I have not seen the full scope of the SOFA agreement with Trinidad yet. But the agreement with Canada, for example, includes provisions to facilitate logistics and support. Now, mind you, the United States also has certain basing rights in Canada because of its involvement with NATO, although they don’t own bases here.
But as I point out, there’s a huge difference between a basing agreement and a status of forces agreement. So, what it does is it looks at things like your criminal liability, criminal jurisdiction, civil liability, powers, jurisdiction, rights and privileges. So, all of these things need to be taken into account.
It does not, under any circumstances, give the United States the right to a military base here. As far as the ship visits are concerned, ship visits happen all the time. US warships, warships from all over the world, make goodwill visits.
They make ports of call. Some of them may stop in for reprovisioning. Some of them require refuelling.
And unless there’s a very strict provision denying it, most ports will allow them to dock, and they’ll be charged for whatever provisions or whatever fuel is taken on, which is very common worldwide. So, that is not such a big deal. And I mean, we’ve had a US aircraft carrier visit.
So, the sight of a US guided missile destroyer in this area is no big deal. In the scope of the Trinidad-US relationship, what does have significance is this build-up of forces that exists in the area. And the very weird reaction that (Nicolas) Maduro has had.
So you are saying Maduro is reacting irrationally?
Now, obviously, the US wants Maduro out. But Venezuelans are virtually playing into his (Donald Trump’s) hands by behaving like idiots and essentially claiming ownership of the vessels that are being destroyed. The United States has taken no military action against any Venezuelan military target or state target.
So, it is passing strange that they’ve reacted in as belligerent a manner as possible. And well, as you know, there’s no love lost between Trinidad and the Venezuelan Guardia. All those pro-Maduro shills who you see in the media now, do not forget that our fishermen have been harassed by the Guardia for a very long time.
And at least on one occasion, the Coast Guard closed to action stations against a Venezuelan Guardia vessel, which was acting in a hostile manner. So yeah, I think we’re getting carried away with the SOFA agreement. And we need to see the docking of the ship (USS Gravely) as separate from that.
If you started seeing large numbers of US ground forces in Trinidad or air forces in Trinidad, then that would be a concern. I should also point out that SOFA agreements are also there for military exercises. So, when Tradewinds happened in Trinidad that year, they would need to have had a SOFA agreement.
Is there anything of strategic importance near T&T waters for Venezuela to be fearful of the USS Gravely while it is here?
Ports. Airports. Radar sites etc. In closing, we can rest on the fact that SOFA is not a basing agreement and the visit of the USS Gravely isn’t unprecedented, given our good relations with the USA.
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted before the departure of the USS Gravely last week.
