PM defends Trump partnership; says security pact will benefit Caricom

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is seek­ing to re­as­sure that the re­cent­ly formed mil­i­tary al­liance be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go, Guyana and the Don­ald Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion will ul­ti­mate­ly ben­e­fit all of Cari­com.

And while speak­ing to mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go di­as­po­ra in Flori­da fol­low­ing the Shield of the Amer­i­c­as Sum­mit, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­fend­ed her part­ner­ship with the con­tro­ver­sial US Pres­i­dent, de­scrib­ing him as a brave and vi­sion­ary leader.

The Prime Min­is­ter spoke at an event in her ho­n­our at Joy’s Roti De­light in Lauder­hill on Sun­day.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she must ac­knowl­edge the “great USA” and sought to de­fend the “dif­fer­ent stance” her gov­ern­ment has tak­en to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s for­eign pol­i­cy since be­ing elect­ed in­to gov­ern­ment.

She said her de­ci­sion to join the Amer­i­ca’s Counter-Car­tel Coali­tion (AC­CC), a US-led re­gion­al mil­i­tary and se­cu­ri­ty al­liance, would be, “In the very best in­ter­est of the en­tire Cari­com, the whole re­gion.”

“That’s the work we are do­ing,” the Prime Min­is­ter added.

The PM lament­ed that the Caribbean re­gion is now plagued by “evil peo­ple.”

“Re­al bad peo­ple. Evil peo­ple. The crim­i­nals are now the ones in the palm. We are elect­ed free with fair elec­tions, but the crim­i­nals run with their cor­rupt ways and in­flu­ence of­fi­cials wher­ev­er they may be, ei­ther be­cause of fame, some are mo­ti­vat­ed by mon­ey. I told some­body last night, how much you will eat? How much you will wear? How much clothes you'll wear? How much mon­ey do you re­al­ly need? What you need is safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty.”

Mean­while, Per­sad-Bisses­sar heaped praise on the US Pres­i­dent.

“We had the dis­tinct ho­n­our to re­al­ly meet with Pres­i­dent Trump. He's a very brave man. He's a very coura­geous man be­cause he's do­ing what needs to be done, not on­ly for USA but for the world. He must have a vi­sion. He has it.”

On Sat­ur­day, Guyana Pres­i­dent Dr Ir­faan Ali al­so spoke favourably about Pres­i­dent Trump, say­ing that while there has been many con­ver­sa­tions sur­round­ing crime and se­cu­ri­ty in the re­gion, the US Pres­i­dent is now tak­ing di­rect ac­tion.

In com­mend­ing the US Pres­i­dent, Per­sad-Bisses­sar ac­knowl­edged that Pres­i­dent Trump re­ceives his share of crit­i­cism but not­ed that she, too, is no stranger to scruti­ny.

“There are many peo­ple say­ing not good things about him and there are many peo­ple say­ing very good things about him and there are many peo­ple say­ing very good things about me and there are some peo­ple who are not say­ing some good things about me. But again, safe­ty, se­cu­ri­ty. That's the pri­or­i­ty one.”