Trinidad and To­ba­go is com­mit­ted to re­gion­al­ism, For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Su­ruj Ram­bachan said on Fri­day, on the eve of the meet­ing of Cari­com heads of gov­ern­ments. Ram­bachan said the T&T del­e­ga­tion was go­ing to the sum­mit, in Ja­maica, with a will to pro­mote re­gion­al uni­ty and to ad­dress cru­cial is­sues af­fect­ing Cari­com. One pri­ma­ry con­cern is se­cu­ri­ty of the re­gion, which, he main­tains, is a pri­or­i­ty mat­ter.

In the midst of glob­al­i­sa­tion, bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions were im­por­tant, said Ram­bachan, and he cit­ed im­proved ties with Cana­da as one ex­am­ple. He said Cana­da con­tin­ued to sup­port small states. The stalled Caribbean Sin­gle Mar­ket and Econ­o­my and as­sis­tance in re­con­struct­ing Haiti were al­so among mat­ters for dis­cus­sion, Ram­bachan said. He stat­ed that there would be di­a­logue on the util­i­sa­tion of mon­ey raised for the earth­quake-strick­en coun­try.

He added that food se­cu­ri­ty would al­so be on the agen­da. The min­is­ter said the state of West In­dies crick­et was like­ly to be dis­cussed dur­ing the sum­mit. Asked about ties with Venezuela, Ram­bachan said that that coun­try "is too im­por­tant a neigh­bour with which not to have good re­la­tions." Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar will lead the Trinidad and To­ba­go del­e­ga­tion, which will in­clude Ram­bachan and Trade and In­dus­try Min­is­ter Stephen Cadiz.