Trinidad and To­ba­go has for­mal­ly es­tab­lished diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions with the State of Pales­tine.  Both coun­tries ce­ment­ed diplo­mat­ic ties on Sun­day 22 Sep­tem­ber 2024.

Ac­cord­ing to an of­fi­cial state­ment is­sued by the Min­istry of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs, the move fol­lows this coun­try’s recog­ni­tion of the State of Pales­tine on May 2, 2024.

Senator Dr. Amery Browne, Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs, and His Excellency Dr. Mohammad Mustafa, Prime Minister of the State of Palestine, signed a Joint Communiqué establishing diplomatic relations on September 22, 2024, at the Permanent Mission of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations in New York. [Image courtesy Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs]

“The Joint Com­mu­niqué es­tab­lish­ing diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions was signed by Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Dr. Amery Browne, Min­is­ter of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go, and His Ex­cel­len­cy Dr. Mo­ham­mad Mustafa, Prime Min­is­ter of the State of Pales­tine, at the Per­ma­nent Mis­sion of Trinidad and To­ba­go to the Unit­ed Na­tions in New York,” the Min­istry’s state­ment re­port­ed.

It not­ed: “This his­toric event is one of Min­is­ter Browne’s ma­jor en­gage­ments at the com­mence­ment of the High-Lev­el Week of the 79th Ses­sion of the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly in New York.”

Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs, Senator Dr. Amery Browne, held discussions with His Excellency Dr. Mohammad Mustafa, Prime Minister of the State of Palestine, at the Permanent Mission of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations in New York on September 22, 2024. Second from right is His Excellency Dennis Francis, Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations, New York. [Image courtesy Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs]

In its re­lease, the For­eign Min­istry ex­plains that Sun­day’s for­mal­iza­tion of bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions rep­re­sents an­oth­er stage in the “on­go­ing di­a­logue be­tween the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Pales­tin­ian peo­ple.”

“The es­tab­lish­ment of diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions with the State of Pales­tine is root­ed in the on­go­ing com­mit­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go, at both the re­gion­al and mul­ti­lat­er­al lev­els, to con­tribute to in­ter­na­tion­al peace and se­cu­ri­ty,” the Min­istry says.  “Sun­day’s sign­ing re­in­forces the call for a peace­ful res­o­lu­tion of the Is­raeli-Pales­tin­ian con­flict, with a two-state so­lu­tion that guar­an­tees the se­cu­ri­ty of Is­rael and the right of Pales­tine to an in­de­pen­dent, vi­able and sov­er­eign state with­in the pre-1967 bor­ders.”

T&T’s Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs, Senator Dr. Amery Browne (centre left), met with His Excellency Dr. Mohammad Mustafa, Prime Minister of the State of Palestine (centre right), at the Permanent Mission of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations in New York, on September 22, 2024. Second from left is His Excellency Dennis Francis, Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations, New York. [Image courtesy Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs]

The Min­istry points out that Trinidad and To­ba­go has con­sis­tent­ly sup­port­ed Pales­tine, as demon­strat­ed in its en­dorse­ment of crit­i­cal res­o­lu­tions reg­u­lar­ly pre­sent­ed to the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly, as well as those adopt­ed at the Emer­gency Spe­cial Ses­sions on the pro­tec­tion of civil­ians and hu­man­i­tar­i­an oblig­a­tions.

“Most re­cent­ly, Trinidad and To­ba­go en­dorsed the 13th Sep­tem­ber, 2024 Res­o­lu­tion on the In­ter­na­tion­al Court of Jus­tice ad­vi­so­ry opin­ion on Is­rael’s oc­cu­pa­tion of Pales­tin­ian ter­ri­to­ries,” the Min­istry re­called, “where­by the Court deemed Is­rael’s oc­cu­pa­tion of Pales­tine to be un­law­ful and urged that it be brought in line with in­ter­na­tion­al law.”