Trinidad and To­ba­go now joins sev­er­al oth­er CARI­COM coun­tries in for­mal­ly recog­nis­ing the State of Pales­tine.

The de­ci­sion was tak­en by Cab­i­net to­day, ac­cord­ing to the Min­istry of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs.

"To­day’s Cab­i­net de­ci­sion is con­sis­tent with these pub­lic state­ments by the Prime Min­is­ter and the Min­is­ter of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs," the Min­istry said in a re­lease.

Trinidad and To­ba­go has con­sis­tent­ly called for a two-State so­lu­tion as a way out of the con­flict.

In Oc­to­ber 2023, Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley said T&T recog­nis­es Is­rael’s right to ex­ist and al­so the right of the Pales­tini­ans to a State of their own.

"Recog­ni­tion of Pales­tine is moral and just and demon­strates Trinidad and To­ba­go’s ac­knowl­edge­ment of and sup­port for the le­git­i­mate as­pi­ra­tions of the Pales­tin­ian Peo­ple,” to­day’s re­lease not­ed. 

It added: "In the sev­en months since the start of the war in Gaza, Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Dr. Amery Browne, Min­is­ter of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs, has ar­tic­u­lat­ed the po­si­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go on this is­sue; con­demned the killing of civil­ians in Gaza and Is­rael; ex­pressed sup­port for the two-State so­lu­tion; and called for an im­me­di­ate cease­fire, the ex­er­cise of re­straint, re­gard for civil­ian lives and wel­fare, di­a­logue and diplo­ma­cy."

141 oth­er coun­tries recog­nise Pales­tine as a State. Ja­maica and Bar­ba­dos were the two most re­cent CARI­COM coun­tries to do so. 

The fol­low­ing is the full text of the re­lease…

RECOG­NI­TION BY TRINIDAD AND TO­BA­GO OF THE STATE OF PALES­TINE

PORT OF SPAIN: 02ND MAY 2024

The Gov­ern­ment of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go has tak­en the de­ci­sion, at its meet­ing of Cab­i­net to­day, to for­mal­ly recog­nise the State of Pales­tine. As rec­om­mend­ed by the Min­is­ter of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs, Cab­i­net has de­ter­mined that the for­mal recog­ni­tion of Pales­tine by the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go will as­sist in the achieve­ment of a last­ing peace by strength­en­ing the grow­ing in­ter­na­tion­al con­sen­sus on the is­sue of Pales­tin­ian state­hood.

Trinidad and To­ba­go has a long his­to­ry of prin­ci­pled sup­port for the right of the Pales­tin­ian peo­ple to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion. The Gov­ern­ment’s con­sis­tent po­si­tion is that a two-State so­lu­tion is the on­ly way out of the on­go­ing cy­cle of vi­o­lence. This is our con­sis­tent for­eign pol­i­cy po­si­tion, which is found­ed on Trinidad and To­ba­go’s re­spect for and ad­her­ence to in­ter­na­tion­al law and to the prin­ci­ples of the Char­ter of the Unit­ed Na­tions.

This sup­port has been con­sis­tent­ly demon­strat­ed through the en­dorse­ment by Trinidad and To­ba­go of key res­o­lu­tions on Pales­tine at the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly (UN­GA). Such res­o­lu­tions in­clude Res­o­lu­tion 67/19, which ac­cord­ed Pales­tine Non-Mem­ber Ob­serv­er State sta­tus in the UN­GA, and the an­nu­al res­o­lu­tions of the UN­GA on the Per­ma­nent sov­er­eign­ty of the Pales­tin­ian peo­ple in the Oc­cu­pied Pales­tin­ian Ter­ri­to­ry, in­clud­ing East Jerusalem, and of the Arab pop­u­la­tion in the oc­cu­pied Syr­i­an Golan over their nat­ur­al re­sources and the Peace­ful set­tle­ment of the ques­tion of Pales­tine. Since the out­break of the most re­cent round of vi­o­lent con­flict in Gaza in Oc­to­ber 2023, Trinidad and To­ba­go al­so sup­port­ed res­o­lu­tions adopt­ed at the Emer­gency Spe­cial Ses­sions of the UN­GA held on Oc­to­ber 27 and De­cem­ber 10, 2023, on the Pro­tec­tion of civil­ians and up­hold­ing le­gal and hu­man­i­tar­i­an oblig­a­tions.

On the is­sue of Pales­tin­ian state­hood, Dr. the Ho­n­ourable Kei­th Row­ley, Prime Min­is­ter, is on record at the post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing of Oc­to­ber 26, 2023 as stat­ing as fol­lows: “The po­si­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go on that mat­ter re­mains the same. It is that we sup­port the two-State pol­i­cy, where peace and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment can come to the peo­ple of the Mid­dle East, Is­rael and its neigh­bours, rec­og­niz­ing Is­rael’s right to ex­ist and al­so the right of the Pales­tini­ans to a State of their own. That is Trinidad and To­ba­go’s po­si­tion, that was our po­si­tion. That is our po­si­tion, war or no war, be­cause we be­lieve it is the on­ly op­tion, of all the op­tions avail­able, that pro­vides any pos­si­bil­i­ty for a re­ces­sion of the hos­til­i­ty and the ha­tred to be re­placed by peace­ful co­ex­is­tence.”

Fur­ther, in the sev­en months since the start of the war in Gaza, Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Dr. Amery Browne, Min­is­ter of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs, has ar­tic­u­lat­ed the po­si­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go on this is­sue; con­demned the killing of civil­ians in Gaza and Is­rael; ex­pressed sup­port for the two-State so­lu­tion; and called for an im­me­di­ate cease­fire, the ex­er­cise of re­straint, re­gard for civil­ian lives and wel­fare, di­a­logue and diplo­ma­cy.

To­day’s Cab­i­net de­ci­sion is con­sis­tent with these pub­lic state­ments by the Prime Min­is­ter and the Min­is­ter of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs.

Trinidad and To­ba­go has been a long­stand­ing ad­vo­cate of the two-State so­lu­tion, as we be­lieve that this is the on­ly cred­i­ble path to peace and se­cu­ri­ty for Pales­tini­ans, the Is­raelis and, by ex­ten­sion, the wider re­gion. Recog­ni­tion of Pales­tine is moral and just and demon­strates Trinidad and To­ba­go’s ac­knowl­edge­ment of and sup­port for the le­git­i­mate as­pi­ra­tions of the Pales­tin­ian Peo­ple. Trinidad and To­ba­go will join 141 oth­er coun­tries that rec­og­nize Pales­tine, Al­ge­ria be­ing the first to have done so in 1988.