KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is off to the Unit­ed States to­day, ahead of the Shield of the Amer­i­c­as sum­mit in Do­ral, Flori­da, to hold high-lev­el talks with US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump and se­nior US of­fi­cials.

Ac­cord­ing to the Gov­ern­ment, the Prime Min­is­ter aims to se­cure en­er­gy and se­cu­ri­ty op­por­tu­ni­ties through both the main sum­mit and strate­gic bi­lat­er­al meet­ings with re­gion­al lead­ers.

Com­ing out of the Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment meet­ing re­cent­ly held in St Kitts, Per­sad-Bisses­sar was in­vit­ed by the US to at­tend the Shields of the Amer­i­c­as Sum­mit.

Trinidad and To­ba­go and Guyana are the on­ly two Cari­com na­tions in­vit­ed to the sum­mit.

The sum­mit is a new Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion se­cu­ri­ty ini­tia­tive which fo­cus­es on en­hanc­ing co­op­er­a­tion among Latin Amer­i­can coun­tries to ad­dress re­gion­al threats such as drug traf­fick­ing and il­le­gal im­mi­gra­tion.

It is sched­uled to take place to­mor­row.

Ac­com­pa­ny­ing the Prime Min­is­ter are For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers, Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath and Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter Nicholas Mor­ris.

Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Jear­lean John will act as Prime Min­is­ter in the Prime Min­is­ter’s ab­sence.

Dur­ing a me­dia con­fer­ence at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre yes­ter­day, Min­is­ter Mor­ris said, “This is an op­por­tu­ni­ty for the Prime Min­is­ter to con­tin­ue the re­la­tion­ship and co­op­er­a­tion with the Unit­ed States.

“This is the strongest our re­la­tion­ship with the Unit­ed States has been since we formed diplo­mat­ic ties. The Prime Min­is­ter will have an op­por­tu­ni­ty to have di­a­logue with the Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States as well as oth­er se­nior of­fi­cials, in­clud­ing the Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Ru­bio, Unit­ed States Trade rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jamieson Greer and Sec­re­tary of En­er­gy Chris Wright. A num­ber of oth­er coun­tries have been in­vit­ed to this sum­mit.”

He re­vealed the Prime Min­is­ter plans to en­gage with oth­er coun­tries such as Pana­ma, El Sal­vador and Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

“We are one of two Cari­com coun­tries in­vit­ed to the sum­mit, but the Prime Min­is­ter, through the Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs, has re­quest­ed bi­lat­er­al dis­cus­sions with some of her col­leagues be­ing the Pres­i­dent of Ar­genti­na, the Pres­i­dent of Pana­ma, Pres­i­dent of El Sal­vador and Pres­i­dent of Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, so it is a very big op­por­tu­ni­ty for Trinidad and To­ba­go to con­tin­ue our fight on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage to bring op­por­tu­ni­ties back to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he added.