Rowley asks US president Biden for covid19 vaccines for Caricom

Caricom chairman Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has written US President Joe Biden seeking supplies of covid19 vaccines for the region.

Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Dr Amery Browne confirmed that Rowley wrote to Biden on Saturday for World Health Organization-approved vaccines.

"The Chair of Caricom has now written to President Biden seeking provision of WHO-approved vaccines for the entire Caricom region inclusive of Trinidad and Tobago," Browne said in a reply to questions from Newsday.

At a news conference on February 25, after the conclusion of the 32nd Intersessional Meeting of Caricom Heads of Government, Rowley said Caricom would approach the US for assistance in acquiring additional vaccines. He suggested the US view the Caribbean as an extension of itself, south from Key West, Florida.

He praised Biden's pledge of US$4 billion to Covax over the next two years. But he said more powerful, influential and richer countries were dominating the supply and distribution of available vaccines.

"What the US could do along with other major influential countries is to ensure that whatever (vaccine) is available in whatever volume, that some of that gets to the Covax so that the Covax mechanism can play its role in ensuring that the small and medium-income countries will have (access to vaccines)," Rowley said.

At the meeting, US congressman and chairman of the US House of Representatives' foreign affairs committee Gregory Meeks told Rowley, "Congress looks forward being a part and helping your country and the broader Caricom region that you represent, to recover from the covid19 pandemic.

"As regional neighbours, I strongly believe that working together, we can open a new chapter in US-Caribbean relations. My door is always open to you and all your Caricom colleagues."

Rowley’s correspondence to Biden comes as the US announced on Thursday that it would give 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada. Reports said the US manufactured millions of doses but the vaccine had yet to be authorised by American regulators, although they were approved in other countries.

Antigua PM Gaston Browne also wrote to Biden requesting AstraZeneca vaccines. In the letter, he said the Caribbean states were the “most vulnerable in the world” and that should be taken into consideration in his decision to provide vaccines.

“Our economies have experienced shrinkage of up to 30 per cent; unemployment has risen to over 50 per cent in some cases; poverty has expanded everywhere; and our revenues have declined precipitously, forcing us to increase debt which we have had to incur at high rates of interest.”

This was good news at a time when the arrival of 33,000 and 77,000 vaccines from the Covax facility was uncertain, and the relationship between TT and India seemed to be deteriorating.

Several Caribbean countries were given vaccines by the Government of India, but TT was not one of them. Rowley has said he would not beg for gifts but was willing to pay for the vaccines. However, the vaccine suppliers were not taking any orders.

Since then there have been several reports about friction between the Indian High Commissioner, Arun Kumar Sahu, and the TT Government.

During the Conversations with the Prime Minister of Thursday night, Rowley said, “The first I heard about any vaccines from India was from local doctors who were spoken to by the Indian High Commissioner, who did not speak to the Government of TT.”

He added that the second time he heard about the Maitri vaccines – Indian's global outreach initiative – was through local businessmen hoping to bring vaccines into the country.

In an e-mail issued to the media by his office on Friday, Sahu responded, “I don’t think it is in the pale of diplomatic decency to personally attack a resident High Commissioner.”

In a WhatsApp message to members of the media, Browne addressed some of these issues, saying there was no evidence of any “personal attacks” in the newspaper articles claiming there had been one.

He added that it was in the interest of both TT and India to prevent tensions from growing.

“Dialogue and diplomacy are the tools of our trade. They offer the potential to bring us closer together even than before, and have been successfully deployed to resolve differences far greater than the ones that currently confront us.

“I have always maintained good communication with High Commissioner Kumar Sahu, and up to Friday March 19 reached out and made multiple attempts to engage in further dialogue to help resolve the situation.”

He said he took “additional measures toward a dialogue” with the goal of resolving the situation in the shortest possible time. However, he did not expand on what  measures or when they were executed.