GEISHA KOW­LESSAR-ALON­ZO

Se­nior Re­porter

geisha.kow­lessar@guardian.co.tt

US Am­bas­sador to T&T Can­dace Bond has af­firmed the strong ties be­tween the two coun­tries and has as­sured that those good re­la­tions will con­tin­ue in 2024.

She made the com­ments at Am­ChamTT’s an­nu­al am­bas­sador’s re­cep­tion at the of­fi­cial res­i­dence of the US Am­bas­sador in Port-of-Spain on Thurs­day night.

“I was just in Wash­ing­ton last month and can con­firm that con­gres­sion­al sup­port for a strong bi­lat­er­al re­la­tion­ship is a top con­cern for many of our leg­is­la­tors. I al­so had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to speak with the Ex­im­Bank, in­ter­a­gency part­ners, and the vice-pres­i­dent.

“With­out go­ing too far in­to de­tails yet, I do know that 2024 should pro­pel our en­gage­ment on shared pri­or­i­ties such as cit­i­zen se­cu­ri­ty, ad­dress­ing the cli­mate cri­sis, and eco­nom­ic part­ner­ship fur­ther than ever,” Bond said.

She said oth­er plans for T&T in­clude fur­ther ad­vanc­ing key Biden-Har­ris ad­min­is­tra­tion re­gion­al and glob­al goals such as sup­port­ing the rule of law, in­creas­ing trade and eco­nom­ic en­gage­ment and through the US-Caribbean part­ner­ship, ad­dress­ing the cli­mate cri­sis 2030 and ac­cel­er­at­ing re­gion­al ef­forts at mit­i­gat­ing and build­ing re­silience to the ef­fects of cli­mate change.

“We know so many of our shared ob­jec­tives are in­ter­re­lat­ed or re­flect cross-cut­ting themes. One of those themes is rule of law, since it not on­ly has an im­pact on safe com­mu­ni­ties and con­trol­ling bor­ders, but al­so sets the con­di­tions for eas­i­er yet se­cure trade and a more com­pet­i­tive in­vest­ment cli­mate. Those con­di­tions ben­e­fit for­eign com­pa­nies and in­vestors, but al­so en­sure that lo­cal com­pa­nies thrive and lo­cal in­no­va­tors and en­tre­pre­neurs are able to make eco­nom­ic con­tri­bu­tions,” she said.

Bond al­so com­ment­ed on what she de­scribed as one the most crit­i­cal eco­nom­ic achieve­ments for the US and T&T in 2023, the Drag­on Gas li­cence.

“I have to tell you all, I put in an amount of work that you wouldn’t be­lieve to get that over the fin­ish line and that was in Jan­u­ary. I thought we were over that hill and we could ride off in­to the sun­set but I was wrong,” she ad­mit­ted.

“In­stead, the is­sue again cropped up, re­quir­ing strong part­ner­ship be­tween our gov­ern­ments and an­oth­er big lift by so many and we did it. We know the fruits of that work are still years away and ad­di­tion­al chal­lenges might crop up here and there but I al­so know that our shared vi­sions of en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty and re­gion­al sta­bil­i­ty pro­vide a strong foun­da­tion to face any new hur­dles that might ma­te­ri­alise.”

In shar­ing her ex­pe­ri­ence, am­bas­sador Bond re­vealed that the work is nev­er done and with is­sues as di­verse as trade, en­sur­ing pro­tec­tion and hu­mane treat­ment for mi­grants, and im­prov­ing cit­i­zen se­cu­ri­ty, progress has been achieved but there is more work ahead.