Carisa Lee

Re­porter

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

Unit­ed States Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Ru­bio has con­grat­u­lat­ed Prime Min­is­ter-elect Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for win­ning Mon­day’s Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

In a post to his X (for­mer­ly Twit­ter) ac­count, Ru­bio de­scribed Per­sad-Bisses­sar as a strong leader, friend, and al­ly of the US, who shared US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s pri­or­i­ties on se­cu­ri­ty and im­mi­gra­tion.

“We look for­ward to build­ing a close part­ner­ship for the fu­ture of Trinidad and To­ba­go and the en­tire Caribbean,” Ru­bio post­ed.

On March 26, Ru­bio met with for­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young in Ja­maica for bi­lat­er­al dis­cus­sions. Af­ter the meet­ing, Young said it was a “good day for T&T,” es­pe­cial­ly when it came to the Drag­on gas project. But ap­prox­i­mate­ly two weeks lat­er, on April 8, Young con­firmed that the US had re­voked the Of­fice of For­eign As­sets Con­trol (OFAC) li­cence for this coun­try to de­vel­op the Drag­on gas field with Venezuela.

The Eu­ro­pean Union (EU) al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed the Prime Min­is­ter-elect on her vic­to­ry. In a Face­book post, the EU said they both share 50 years of part­ner­ship, ground­ed in shared val­ues, prin­ci­ples, and a com­mit­ment to con­struc­tive en­gage­ment across a broad range of bi­lat­er­al and mul­ti­lat­er­al is­sues.

“We look for­ward to deep­en­ing our col­lab­o­ra­tion on glob­al chal­lenges and the de­fence of the in­ter­na­tion­al rules-based or­der in the com­ing years,” the EU added.

UK Min­is­ter of In­ter­na­tion­al De­vel­op­ment for Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean, Baroness Chap­man, said they were al­so look­ing for­ward to build­ing on their en­dur­ing friend­ship and part­ner­ship.

In a state­ment al­so con­grat­u­lat­ing Per­sad-Bisses­sar, In­dia Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Mo­di said they cher­ished the his­tor­i­cal­ly close and fa­mil­ial ties and “look for­ward to work­ing close­ly with you to fur­ther strength­en our part­ner­ship for shared pros­per­i­ty and well-be­ing of the peo­ple.”

Not too long af­ter her vic­to­ry was de­clared, Cari­com con­grat­u­lat­ed T&T on the peace­ful ex­er­cise of their de­mo­c­ra­t­ic rights.

“The de­ci­sive vic­to­ry is a clear man­date from the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go as the coun­try con­tin­ues its for­ward jour­ney,” the re­lease said.

Bar­ba­dos Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley, who is al­so the chair of Cari­com, said in a world where democ­ra­cy is of­ten test­ed, T&T has shown that true strength lies in the com­mit­ment of its peo­ple to par­tic­i­pa­tion, fair­ness and free ex­pres­sion.

Ja­maica PM An­drew Hol­ness said Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s suc­cess at the polls is an in­di­ca­tion of the con­fi­dence of the peo­ple of T&T in her lead­er­ship. He said the new ad­min­is­tra­tion’s man­date presents an im­por­tant op­por­tu­ni­ty for strength­ened co­op­er­a­tion.