By Sasha Harrinanan Wednesday, September 19 2012

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Therese Baptiste-Cornelis...

Foreign Affairs Minister, Winston Dookeran, yesterday told Newsday he “was not aware” that Therese Baptiste-Cornelis has submitted a letter of resignation from her post as Trinidad and Tobago’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

“I’m not aware that she has submitted any letter of resignation. In fact, I haven’t heard from, or spoken to Mrs Baptiste-Cornelis since shortly before September 3, when she asked for an extension of leave to oversee our 50th Anniversary of Independence celebrations in Geneva.”

Dookeran also revealed that Baptiste-Cornelis, who presented her credentials a mere ten months ago to Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, never contacted him about postponing her meeting on Monday.

“She has vacated the TT Embassy in Geneva, and I haven’t been able to locate her since.”

Dookeran was responding to reports yesterday that Baptiste-Cornelis had chosen to send a letter of resignation to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, rather than return to Trinidad for a meeting with him.

Baptiste-Cornelis was scheduled to meet with Dookeran to face the fallout from controversial comments she made in June, while delivering an address on cultural diversity at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin, Germany.

In her 30-minute speech, Baptiste-Cornelis rambled about how hard it was to be an ambassador, her hatred of politics, her online courtship with her husband; as well as about her relationship with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who fired her as Health Minister because of her war with local doctors.

Dookeran yesterday said clear that no matter the actual date, once Baptiste-Cornelis met him in- person, that was intended to be her official last day in office.