Rapheal John-Lall

For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an said T&T will main­tain its busi­ness and eco­nom­ic re­la­tions with Venezuela al­though that coun­try has been deemed "a threat to na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty" by Unit­ed States Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma.

He said it was Gov­ern­ment's de­sire to see a diplo­mat­ic so­lu­tion for the es­ca­lat­ing diplo­mat­ic cri­sis be­tween Venezuela and the US.

"We want to see a so­lu­tion for the is­sues in Venezuela and now with re­spect to the is­sues be­tween Venezuela and the Unit­ed States. We would use what­ev­er good of­fices we have to try and bring about a plat­form for a diplo­mat­ic so­lu­tion to this sit­u­a­tion that is evolv­ing," the min­is­ter told the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day.

Dook­er­an added: "Our joint ex­plo­ration of the en­er­gy re­sources in the sea will con­tin­ue. This will not af­fect the need for a diplo­mat­ic so­lu­tion that I spoke about."

He said T&T wants to work with oth­er coun­tries in the re­gion to find a so­lu­tion to the emerg­ing diplo­mat­ic cri­sis be­tween Venezuela and the Unit­ed States.

"We have in­di­cat­ed this de­sire to the Com­mu­ni­ty of Latin Amer­i­can and Caribbean Coun­tries (CELAC) as well as the Or­ga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS), so with­in the cor­ri­dors of those bod­ies we ex­pect ap­pro­pri­ate so­lu­tions," he said.

Two weeks ago, Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro vis­it­ed T&T and signed two en­er­gy agree­ments with Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre in St Ann's. The two coun­tries have al­so agreed to barter com­modi­ties and goods to en­hance their economies.

Venezue­lan Am­bas­sador to T&T Coro­mo­to Godoy, speak­ing at a me­dia con­fer­ence yes­ter­day at the Venezue­lan Em­bassy in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day af­ter­noon said the re­la­tion­ship be­tween Venezuela and T&T will not be im­pact­ed by re­cent de­vel­op­ments.

"We have a great re­la­tion­ship with T&T. We are get­ting sol­i­dar­i­ty from the re­gion and the T&T Gov­ern­ment. There are over 2,500 Venezue­lans who live and work in T&T," she said.

Dook­er­an's as­sur­ances about the strength of trad­ing re­la­tions with Venezuela's comes one week af­ter his Cab­i­net col­league, Trade Min­is­ter Vas­ant Bharath, said in re­sponse to ques­tions from re­porters that de­te­ri­o­rat­ing re­la­tions be­tween Venezuela and the US will not af­fect busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ties be­tween T&T and Venezuela. He al­so an­nounced that and in a few weeks a del­e­ga­tion from T&T will be em­bark­ing on a trade mis­sion to the South Amer­i­can na­tion.

"Our in­ter­est in Venezuela is to de­vel­op our trad­ing re­la­tion­ship and long es­tab­lished diplo­mat­ic re­la­tion­ship with them. We do have a bi­lat­er­al agree­ment with Venezuela that has ex­ist­ed for pos­si­bly close to 20 years so it re­al­ly is a ques­tion of ex­er­cis­ing the op­por­tu­ni­ties with­in that arrange­ment to al­low our man­u­fac­tur­ers a mar­ket share with­in the Venezue­lan mar­ket. That is our in­ten­tion with­in this point in time," he said.