KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Colom­bian Am­bas­sador to T&T, Sid­ney Bush Howard, has de­scribed his two-year tenure in the coun­try as “ex­tra­or­di­nary,” high­light­ing the deep­en­ing of ties be­tween Colom­bia and the wider Caribbean.

He was speak­ing at Colom­bia’s Na­tion­al Day cel­e­bra­tion on Ju­ly 17 at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.

“We have worked to­geth­er with mul­ti­ple ac­tors to pro­mote bilin­gual­ism, cul­tur­al re­la­tions, ed­u­ca­tion, and hu­man de­vel­op­ment in Trinidad and To­ba­go—and, by ex­ten­sion, the Caribbean re­gion,” Bush Howard said.

“These joint ef­forts are a tes­ta­ment to our shared com­mit­ment to progress and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment. On this oc­ca­sion, we cel­e­brate 57 years of friend­ship be­tween Colom­bia and Trinidad and To­ba­go, of which I am tru­ly proud. I will con­tin­ue to work tire­less­ly for our bonds to re­main sol­id and strong for gen­er­a­tions to come.”

Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs, Nicholas Mor­ris, al­so ad­dressed the event.

He not­ed that 2025 will mark the 13th an­niver­sary of the re­open­ing of the Em­bassy of Colom­bia in Port-of-Spain.

“I re­count this mo­ment as but a small tes­ta­ment to the strength of our for­mal diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions,” Mor­ris said.

He ac­knowl­edged Colom­bia as one of T&T’s most sig­nif­i­cant trad­ing part­ners in the Amer­i­c­as.

“No­tably, in terms of trade, goods from Colom­bia are quite pop­u­lar with many fam­i­lies in Trinidad and To­ba­go due to their high qual­i­ty and rea­son­able prices,” he added. “You may al­so be heart­ened to learn that Colom­bian cof­fee is a sta­ple among many staff mem­bers at the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs.”

Mor­ris praised the Span­ish lan­guage train­ing pro­vid­ed by Colom­bia to lo­cal diplo­mats and pub­lic of­fi­cials, de­scrib­ing it as one of the most ef­fec­tive co­op­er­a­tion pro­grammes on the bi­lat­er­al agen­da.

“It has di­rect ap­pli­ca­tion to ed­u­ca­tion, em­ploy­ment, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion—and has al­lowed both coun­tries to bridge cul­tures, break down bar­ri­ers, and fos­ter learn­ing,” he said.

“I firm­ly be­lieve ini­tia­tives such as these will con­tin­ue to ben­e­fit both our na­tions. Lan­guage is in­ex­tri­ca­bly linked to his­to­ry and cul­ture. I es­pe­cial­ly look for­ward to the ex­change of Span­ish and Eng­lish lan­guage teach­ers, which is al­ready un­der­way.”

On Ju­ly 16, ahead of the Na­tion­al Day cel­e­bra­tion, Am­bas­sador Bush Howard paid a cour­tesy call to Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs, Sean Sobers.

Dur­ing the meet­ing, both par­ties reaf­firmed their com­mit­ment to deep­en­ing co­op­er­a­tion, en­hanc­ing cul­tur­al ap­pre­ci­a­tion, and pro­mot­ing mu­tu­al de­vel­op­ment.

T&T and Colom­bia es­tab­lished for­mal diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions on Feb­ru­ary 22, 1968.