KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

In a warm ges­ture, Mex­i­can Am­bas­sador Hugo Morales has ex­tend­ed an open in­vi­ta­tion to na­tion­als of T&T to vis­it Mex­i­co for the 2026 FI­FA World Cup.

He made the an­nounce­ment dur­ing Mex­i­co’s Na­tion­al Day cel­e­bra­tions at Queen’s Hall last Tues­day.

“Next year, Mex­i­co will host, for the third time, the FI­FA World Cup,” he said. “I in­vite you to vis­it Mex­i­co and en­joy the cel­e­bra­tion of foot­ball in a warm, hos­pitable coun­try where friends from Trinidad and To­ba­go do not re­quire a visa. You are most wel­come.”

Mex­i­co will share host­ing du­ties with the Unit­ed States and Cana­da, mark­ing the first time in his­to­ry that the World Cup will be staged across three na­tions. With match­es set for icon­ic cities such as Mex­i­co City, Guadala­jara and Mon­ter­rey, the tour­na­ment will show­case the coun­try’s pas­sion for foot­ball, vi­brant cul­ture and renowned hos­pi­tal­i­ty.

The in­vi­ta­tion comes as Mex­i­co and T&T pre­pare to cel­e­brate 60 years of diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions in 2026. Morales de­scribed the up­com­ing an­niver­sary as “a time for re­flec­tion and ac­tion in or­der to strength­en our friend­ship and un­der­stand­ing, to show­case the rich­ness of Mex­i­can cul­ture in Trinidad and To­ba­go, and like­wise, the cul­tur­al strength of Trinidad and To­ba­go in Mex­i­co.”

Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Sean Sobers re­spond­ed by ex­press­ing con­fi­dence that, when T&T’s Na­tion­al Team qual­i­fies for the World Cup, fans will proud­ly trav­el to Mex­i­co in their na­tion­al colours.

Sobers not­ed that the two na­tions es­tab­lished diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions on April 29, 1966, and reaf­firmed T&T’s com­mit­ment to strength­en­ing ties through eco­nom­ic co­op­er­a­tion, cul­tur­al ex­changes and tech­no­log­i­cal col­lab­o­ra­tion.

One ma­jor area of co­op­er­a­tion is the cre­ation of the Geospa­tial Ob­ser­va­tion Cen­tre (GOC) at The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus. The cen­tre, fund­ed and sup­port­ed by Mex­i­co, will play a piv­otal role in ad­vanc­ing dis­as­ter pre­pared­ness and en­vi­ron­men­tal man­age­ment in T&T and across the Caribbean.

Sobers em­pha­sised that the GOC rep­re­sents a strate­gic step to­ward tech­no­log­i­cal co­op­er­a­tion and knowl­edge trans­fer. Staff and re­searchers will ben­e­fit from train­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties in Mex­i­co, gain­ing ac­cess to cut­ting-edge ex­per­tise in geospa­tial sci­ences.

“The Gov­ern­ment ap­pre­ci­ates Mex­i­co’s col­lab­o­ra­tion in cre­at­ing an en­vi­ron­ment where our na­tion­als at the GOC can ac­cess valu­able train­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties,” Sobers said. “This ini­tia­tive demon­strates how shared knowl­edge can be har­nessed for the re­silience and sus­tain­abil­i­ty of our so­ci­eties.”

The evening’s cel­e­bra­tion fea­tured cul­tur­al per­for­mances by Mari­achi Tap­atío de Ál­varo Pauli­no and lo­cal gui­tarist Ste­fan Roach, adding a fes­tive touch to the oc­ca­sion.