An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers@guardian.co.tt

Econ­o­mist Dr In­dera Sage­wan has wel­comed a Venezue­lan del­e­ga­tion’s vis­it to Trinidad and To­ba­go, de­scrib­ing it as an im­por­tant step to­wards re­build­ing bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions and strength­en­ing eco­nom­ic co­op­er­a­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly in en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty.

The del­e­ga­tion of pub­lic and pri­vate-sec­tor of­fi­cials from Su­cre State, Venezuela, is in this coun­try un­til Wednes­day to ex­plore eco­nom­ic part­ner­ships and iden­ti­fy op­por­tu­ni­ties for co­op­er­a­tion across sev­er­al sec­tors.
En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal has con­firmed that the vis­it­ing del­e­ga­tion is from lo­cal gov­ern­ment in Venezuela, rather than the coun­try’s cen­tral gov­ern­ment. The del­e­ga­tion is here to dis­cuss trade, tourism and in­vest­ment.

How­ev­er, for­mer En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has ques­tioned the Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of re­la­tions with Venezuela, ar­gu­ing that the Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar ad­min­is­tra­tion has work to do to re­pair ties with the neigh­bour­ing coun­try.

Sage­wan views the vis­it as ev­i­dence of ef­forts to strength­en re­la­tions fol­low­ing dis­cus­sions be­tween Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Venezue­lan act­ing pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez in Sep­tem­ber.

“This state del­e­ga­tion of of­fi­cials and pri­vate sec­tor busi­ness­es from Venezuela to Trinidad and To­ba­go speaks vol­umes in terms of the ef­forts that have been made to reignite the re­la­tion­ship be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Venezuela,” Sage­wan said.

She point­ed to the im­por­tance of both coun­tries to each oth­er’s en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the short to medi­um term.

“I think we can all agree that par­tic­u­lar­ly with re­spect to en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty, T&T and Venezuela are very, very im­por­tant to each oth­er, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the short to medi­um term,” she out­lined.

Sage­wan linked the vis­it to an ear­li­er mis­sion to Venezuela led by For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers, de­scrib­ing the cur­rent del­e­ga­tion as a rec­i­p­ro­cal ef­fort to deep­en eco­nom­ic ties.

She said the dis­cus­sions should ex­tend be­yond en­er­gy to in­clude agri­cul­ture, tourism and oth­er ar­eas of po­ten­tial co­op­er­a­tion.

“In this in­stance, we're look­ing at not just en­er­gy, but oth­er ar­eas such as agri­cul­ture, tourism, and pos­si­bly oth­er ar­eas,” she said.

Sage­wan views the ini­tia­tive as part of a wider ef­fort to ex­pand T&T’s eco­nom­ic re­la­tion­ships and strength­en bi­lat­er­al co­op­er­a­tion with Venezuela.

The Venezue­lan Em­bassy’s press of­fice an­nounced the vis­it, which com­pris­es pub­lic and pri­vate-sec­tor rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Su­cre State on Venezuela’s north­ern coast. The state has an econ­o­my based on fish­ing, agri­cul­ture and tourism.

The em­bassy de­scribed the mis­sion as an op­por­tu­ni­ty to deep­en friend­ship and co­op­er­a­tion, with a fo­cus on eco­nom­ic part­ner­ships and cul­tur­al ex­change. It al­so ex­pressed hope that dis­cus­sions would lead to last­ing part­ner­ships and new op­por­tu­ni­ties for both coun­tries.

Young, mean­while, wel­comed the ar­rival of the del­e­ga­tion but ques­tioned the ex­tent of the progress be­ing made in re­pair­ing re­la­tions.

“The PNM and, in par­tic­u­lar, PNM gov­ern­ments have al­ways en­cour­aged, wel­comed and ac­tu­al­ly pri­ori­tised our re­la­tion­ships with our neigh­bours, in­clud­ing the im­por­tant re­la­tion­ship with Venezuela,” Young said.

He point­ed to the for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment ad­min­is­tra­tion’s ef­forts be­tween 2015 and 2025 to ad­vance T&T’s en­er­gy agen­da with Venezuela.

Young crit­i­cised Per­sad-Bisses­sar and her ad­min­is­tra­tion for their pre­vi­ous pub­lic ex­changes with the Venezue­lan Gov­ern­ment, ar­gu­ing that the cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion had been dis­re­spect­ful to­wards its neigh­bour un­til re­cent­ly.

As a cit­i­zen, Young ex­pressed sat­is­fac­tion that a Venezue­lan del­e­ga­tion was vis­it­ing the coun­try, but stressed that the mis­sion was from Su­cre State rather than Venezuela’s cen­tral gov­ern­ment.

He there­fore cau­tioned against pre­sent­ing the vis­it as a break­through in bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions.

“I ex­pect the car­cas­soc­ra­cy to try and sell it as though it is the great­est thing since sliced bread, but they have a long way to go in re­pair­ing the re­la­tion­ship with our neigh­bours in Venezuela,” Young said.

He al­so ac­cused the cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion of ben­e­fit­ing from work un­der­tak­en by the pre­vi­ous PNM Gov­ern­ment.

The vis­it comes as both coun­tries seek op­por­tu­ni­ties to broad­en co­op­er­a­tion, with en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty re­main­ing a sig­nif­i­cant con­sid­er­a­tion along­side po­ten­tial part­ner­ships in agri­cul­ture, tourism and oth­er com­mer­cial ac­tiv­i­ties.