Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has la­belled him­self the “least trav­elled Cari­com Prime Min­is­ter,” as he bashed the Op­po­si­tion Leader for mak­ing “mis­chief” about his trav­els.

The Prime Min­is­ter is not at­tend­ing the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly (UN­GA). In­stead, For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne is lead­ing T&T’s del­e­ga­tion to the meet­ing, where he de­liv­ered a state­ment on be­half of T&T yes­ter­day. Next month, Row­ley will lead T&T’s mis­sion to the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment con­fer­ence in Samoa. He con­firmed this yes­ter­day when con­tact­ed on whether he’d be at­tend­ing the cur­rent “High lev­el Week” of ac­tiv­i­ties at the 79th ses­sion of the UN­GA in New York.

How­ev­er, Row­ley slammed Per­sad-Bisses­sar for “mak­ing an is­sue of how many times I, as Prime Min­is­ter, have trav­elled abroad.” Al­leg­ing and ac­cus­ing her of “mis­chief,” Row­ley said, “She even took time to ac­tu­al­ly count the num­ber of days, to be able to re­port that in nine years, I was away for 372 days (she says). “As Prime Min­is­ter, there are very many oc­ca­sions that I am re­quired to go out­side the coun­try to con­duct na­tion­al busi­ness. Most of these oc­ca­sions are on the cal­en­dar by pri­or arrange­ments and oth­ers are ini­ti­at­ed by cir­cum­stances which ini­ti­ate var­i­ous meet­ings, etc. I have been very se­lec­tive on which meet­ings I at­tend based on the agen­da of the spe­cif­ic meet­ing or oth­er con­sid­er­a­tions.”

He said even as Per­sad-Bisses­sar spoke about his trav­el, “it is she and Rod­ney Charles who at oth­er times chas­tise me for not at­tend­ing COP meet­ings. I have on­ly at­tend­ed two such meet­ings. With re­spect to Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment meet­ings, I’ve on­ly at­tend­ed two of those. With re­spect to the an­nu­al UN Gen­er­al As­sem­bly, I have at­tend­ed on­ly two of those.”

He added, “As an undis­put­ed fact, I am prob­a­bly the least trav­elled Cari­com Prime Min­is­ter. I usu­al­ly have the For­eign Min­is­ter rep­re­sent Trinidad and To­ba­go on many of these oc­ca­sions where I could have tak­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to trav­el. Such is the case at this present time, where Min­is­ter Browne is lead­ing our del­e­ga­tion in New York.”

“Next month, I lead our del­e­ga­tion to the Com­mon­wealth Heads Meet­ing in Samoa, large­ly be­cause at this com­ing meet­ing (sec­ond since COVID), I did not at­tend the last one in Africa. There is an im­por­tant mat­ter of the elec­tion of a new head of the Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al of the Com­mon­wealth and all Cari­com votes are re­quired on this oc­ca­sion,” the PM added.