PM Persad-Bissessar venturing into dangerous territory

It is one thing for Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to express her Government’s support for the United States warships combing the Caribbean Sea, reportedly in search of the drug cartels in Latin America. It’s another matter entirely to be dissing and insulting Caricom member states.

“… No amount of Trump derangement syndrome tantrums and anti-American propaganda will prevent my Government from welcoming assistance to combat terrorist drug cartels,” PM Persad-Bissessar said in her statement on the matter on Saturday.

She went further to seek to undermine the long-stated Caricom position of neutrality and the insistence on the region remaining a “Zone of Peace” against any possible conflict-generating action resulting from the US military deployment against the alleged “terrorist cartels.”

Further, the Prime Minister went against one of the fundamental principles upon which the Caricom integration movement was formed, that being the harmonisation of member states on foreign policy matters, stating that her Government will not be engaging Caricom on the issue, since each member state can speak for itself.

All of the above displays a quite unnecessarily aggressive position on this critical matter by the T&T Government in relation to its Caricom partners.

Many commentators on international affairs have interpreted the sending of the US military warships into the Caribbean as an attempt to crush President Nicolas Maduro’s regime in Venezuela, which it has deemed to be a “drug cartel.” To substantiate that position, the US has offered a US$50 million bounty for information on the Venezuelan leader.

“We have good bilateral relations with both countries—the US and Venezuela, and we intend on keeping it that way,” stated Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar, in obvious contradiction to her often-stated support for Washington against Caracas.

Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar’s statement comes in direct contrast to the far more measured and less hostile position of her Foreign and Caricom Minister Sean Sobers. He must now be in line for a dressing down by his prime minister. Or perhaps the intention of the T&T Government is to throw the two reactions out there as a means of seeming to balance T&T’s reaction to the US warships in the Caribbean Sea, and the possibility of conflict in the region.

Whatever the determination of the Persad-Bissessar Government on the presence of the American warships in waters proximate to Venezuela, and in the context of the very well-known conflicting relations between Washington and Caracas, there is absolutely no need for the Government in Port-of-Spain to land itself so vigorously in sync with the Trump administration.

Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar has compounded her zealous support for the US by her antagonisms displayed to fellow Caricom member states and to do so without any direct provocation from those countries.

The near hysteria displayed by the Prime Minister lacks statecraft, balanced responses and the need for small countries such as ours within Caricom to engage diplomacy in international relations, without seeking to ingratiate itself with one country while being hostile to another. Moreover, for T&T to treat its Caricom partners in such a degrading manner is also ill-advised.

Notwithstanding the known shortcomings of Caricom, the integration movement remains an absolute solid base for member states in an international environment often hostile to the interests of small states.