Sobers arrives in Venezuela for high-level talks

For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers has ar­rived in Venezuela for high-lev­el bi­lat­er­al talks, as Trinidad and To­ba­go seeks to strength­en diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions with its clos­est South Amer­i­can neigh­bour fol­low­ing a pe­ri­od of strained ties.

The Min­istry of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs con­firmed Sobers’ ar­rival on Thurs­day, say­ing he and his del­e­ga­tion were re­ceived at the Simón Bolí­var In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port by of­fi­cials of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Em­bassy in Cara­cas and se­nior rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Venezue­lan Gov­ern­ment.

Ac­cord­ing to the Min­istry, the diplo­mat­ic en­gage­ments are ex­pect­ed to fo­cus on strength­en­ing bi­lat­er­al ties, re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty and eco­nom­ic co­op­er­a­tion.

Sobers is lead­ing a del­e­ga­tion which in­cludes the Min­istry’s Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary and oth­er of­fi­cials. He is ex­pect­ed to hold talks with Venezue­lan For­eign Min­is­ter Félix Plasen­cia dur­ing the one-day vis­it. En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal is not part of the del­e­ga­tion.

The vis­it comes af­ter months of ef­forts by the Gov­ern­ment to se­cure di­rect talks with Cara­cas and fol­lows a pe­ri­od of strained re­la­tions be­tween the two coun­tries amid Trinidad and To­ba­go’s sup­port for Unit­ed States se­cu­ri­ty ini­tia­tives in the re­gion. Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was sub­se­quent­ly de­clared per­sona non gra­ta by Venezuela.

How­ev­er, re­la­tions ap­peared to im­prove fol­low­ing the June earth­quakes in north­ern Venezuela, when Trinidad and To­ba­go pro­vid­ed hu­man­i­tar­i­an as­sis­tance. Act­ing Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez lat­er thanked this coun­try for its sup­port in an ex­change of let­ters with Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

En­er­gy in­ter­ests are al­so ex­pect­ed to loom over the re­newed diplo­mat­ic en­gage­ment.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar had an­nounced in April that a del­e­ga­tion would trav­el to Cara­cas as part of ef­forts to se­cure Trinidad and To­ba­go’s “just share” of cross-bor­der oil and gas re­sources. Long­stand­ing en­er­gy in­ter­ests be­tween the neigh­bours in­clude the Drag­on and Lo­ran-Man­a­tee gas fields, which are viewed as im­por­tant to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s en­er­gy sec­tor.