Naparima MP slams Govt’s foreign policies

UNC MP Rodney Charles has accused Prime Minister Dr Rowley of being “devoid from reality” as he attacked the PNM’s regime’s diplomacy and foreign policies.

In a statement, Charles, who is the MP for Naparima, said, “The ceaseless barrage of cases in which TT has been given a negative image on the international platform is testament, to any sensible onlooker, that TT’s foreign policy, or lack thereof, under the PNM is nothing short of an absolute failure.”

Charles accused Rowley of adopting “pavement diplomacy” by chastising and insulting diplomatic officials from many of TT’s key trading partners, pointing to the recent scolding of US officials.

He said this was possibly why the US was now using Jamaica as a major transhipment point for the CARICOM energy market.

“Regional news reports indicate that Petrojam Limited, of Jamaica, is now supplying the Barbados National Terminal Company Ltd with oil following the closure of Petrotrin. And that the “BNTCL chairman, Alex McDonald said the deal is far more competitive than the previous with Petrotrin,” Charles said.

He also noted that according to reports, TT, on a per capita basis, was among the world’s top suppliers of terrorists fighting alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

“It was also said that more than 100 citizens are believed to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS and ‘are likely to pose a security threat on return.’

“Under this Rowley administration, unlike most developed countries, TT has no policy in place to repatriate wives and children languishing in Iraqi prisons,” Charles said, adding that the Government has failed to mount effective responses to the plethora of international travel bulletins warning visitors about TT’s high crime rates.

“Multiple travel advisories warn potential tourists that: Shootings, kidnappings and other gang and drug related violence occur,’ and that ‘there is a risk of you being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Charles said.

“Their foreign policy inadequacies are made manifest daily. Foreign policy ought to be an extension on the global arena of our domestic realities and circumstances. Is this the image we want in the international arena?” he asked.

As he quoted the US Department of State recent Trafficking in Persons Report 2019, which ranked TT at Tier 2, Charles said after the brief two-week Venezuelan registration process, this country was faced with an unknown number of Venezuelans who did not register and are living and working under the radar.

“This registration policy is just another example of poor planning. There were so many unanswered questions concerning the process. The UNC has called from day one for a well thought out refugee policy that is humane and based on best practices,” he said.

Charles, a former ambassador, said experts have warned of an epidemic of diseases such as malaria and dengue on an unprecedented scale in Latin America and noted that it has been reported that Venezuelan migrants are bringing more cases of malaria into the countries they flee to.

“Time and time again this Government proves unable to increase the standard of TT’s international business footprint. It was reported that the insufficient policy from this inept PNM administration is among the factors responsible for Moody’s Investors Service downgrade of TT in response to the decline of the energy sector.

“The latest in the string of the PNM’s incompetence is that after four years of not attending UN General Assembly meetings, the Prime Minister has now seen it fit to express an interest in attending this year’s meeting to highlight TT’s issues.

“Their entire approach has simply been ‘too little too late. TT deserves a Government that does not portray its mediocrity as a triumph,” Charles said,