For­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Stu­art Young says Trinidad and To­ba­go must not drift away from long-stand­ing for­eign pol­i­cy prin­ci­ples that keep the re­gion free from mil­i­tary con­flict, warn­ing that “war has no place in the Caribbean.”

Speak­ing dur­ing the de­bate on a mo­tion brought by the Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les yes­ter­day, Young said the coun­try’s for­eign pol­i­cy must re­main an­chored in the Unit­ed Na­tions Char­ter and Cari­com’s com­mit­ments to peace, sov­er­eign­ty and non-in­ter­ven­tion.

Young said the re­gion must pro­tect the long-held con­cept of the Caribbean as a “zone of peace.” He told Par­lia­ment, “A zone of peace in this re­gion means no war. It means keep the mil­i­tary build-ups, the po­ten­tial of war, out. We don’t want war here. We are not equipped for war here, and we should re­main that way.”

He crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment for what he de­scribed as de­vel­op­ments that could place T&T at risk, say­ing for­eign re­la­tions must be man­aged with bal­ance, diplo­ma­cy and re­spect for in­ter­na­tion­al law.

Young asked, “When did the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go give a man­date… to break away from this im­por­tant prin­ci­ple that keeps us out of war?”

He said the coun­try’s safe­ty is tied to its re­la­tion­ships with Cari­com states and its ad­her­ence to the UN Char­ter. Cit­ing Ar­ti­cle 1 of the Char­ter, Young re­mind­ed Par­lia­ment that its pur­pose is “to main­tain in­ter­na­tion­al peace and se­cu­ri­ty” and to re­solve dis­putes “by peace­ful means.”

Young warned that re­cent ac­tions by the Gov­ern­ment have strained Cari­com re­la­tion­ships. He point­ed to a Cari­com state­ment is­sued on Oc­to­ber 18, not­ing that every re­gion­al leader en­dorsed its po­si­tion ex­cept T&T.

He said this was “one of the dark­est days in our for­eign af­fairs his­to­ry,” adding that Cari­com uni­ty is crit­i­cal be­cause “a block vote stand­ing to­geth­er gives you voice… when Cari­com moves as one, the world has to lis­ten.”

Young said diplo­ma­cy must re­main cen­tral to this coun­try’s ap­proach to Venezuela and oth­er neigh­bours. He ar­gued that T&T’s strength lies in non-in­ter­fer­ence and sov­er­eign equal­i­ty, stat­ing, “We are too small to be­come a pawn or to in­ter­fere, es­pe­cial­ly in our clos­est neigh­bours’ do­mes­tic af­fairs.”

Young warned that weak­ened diplo­mat­ic re­la­tion­ships could put the coun­try’s se­cu­ri­ty and econ­o­my at risk, in­clud­ing its off­shore plat­forms.

He asked, “Why have we found our­selves where we have to­day in such a short pe­ri­od of time? When you burn the bridges of diplo­ma­cy… it takes a lot of work to re­open them.”

Young con­clud­ed by reaf­firm­ing his par­ty’s com­mit­ment to re­gion­al peace:

“We all stood to­geth­er… and said we don’t want war here. War has no place here.”

He said the Op­po­si­tion will con­tin­ue to de­fend the coun­try’s sov­er­eign­ty, sta­bil­i­ty and in­ter­na­tion­al stand­ing, adding, “We stand in de­fence of the right-think­ing peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

—Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va