Trinidad & Tobago foreign ministry releases joint statement with Indian High Commission

Trinidad and Tobago: The issue of procuring vaccine for the people of Trinidad and Tobago continues to take new turns every day. After an aggressive yet informative statement released by the High Commission of India in Port of Spain, another joint statement have been released by the Indian HC and Foreign Ministry of Trinidad and Tobago.

The statement declared a recent meeting of Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Dr Amery Browne and Indian consulate Arun Kumar Sahu.

It added that two officials discussed the matter of vaccine and decided to work even closer together on this matter.

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Besides this, there has been a discussion on the enhancement of this bilateral cooperation between Trinidad and Tobago and India on pharmaceuticals, health-care, Information ad Communication Technology (ICT) and some other subjects.

The statement added that the meeting was successful and conducted in the best interests of the long-standing ties that bind the two countries.

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In an individual statement by the Indian High Commission earlier this week, it had cleared the air on the vaccine issue and outlined options suggested to the government of T&T on procurement of vaccine from the government of India.

The sole statement of the Indian High Commission created a lot of political distress in Trinidad and Tobago. Following it, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley also responded to the allegations.

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He stated that being the head of the chair at the CARICOM, he made an appeal to the WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and appealed for vaccine equity and also took up the issue.

Dr Rowley indicated that at the recent heads of government meeting, with Trinidad and Tobago in the Chair, a decision was taken to raise the issue directly with world leaders with whom we have long-standing relationships.“

"At least our effort and our stances have not gone entirely unnoticed and have been acknowledged by CELAC and by Mexico last week," added Keith Rowley in his statement.

Prime Minister Rowley went on to state that as chairman of Caricom, he appeared alongside Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the World Health Organization (WHO), making an appeal for vaccine equity and also took up the issue on American national media when he was the Frontline Speaker at the Atlantic Council.

Dr Rowley indicated that at the recent heads of government meeting, with Trinidad and Tobago in the Chair, a decision was taken to raise the issue directly with world leaders with whom we have long-standing relationships.“

At least our effort and our stance have not gone completely unnoticed and have been acknowledged by CELAC and by Mexico last week.