Succeeding in era of Trump

THE EDITOR: As a small nation, we must prioritise what is in TT’s best interest, ensuring that our policies remain balanced, visionary, and hopeful.

While the Donald Trump administration’s "America First" policies may disrupt global norms, they also open possibilities for nations with strategic foresight, clear-sighted road maps, and pragmatic leadership.

This can be a unifying call to action for us to approach this era with modern diplomacy, deliberate ingenuity and world class leadership.

Navigating the Trump era: A seven-point plan

1. Support our diaspora: The welfare of our citizens in the US must be prioritised, creating a dedicated support system through our embassy and consulates, with legal assistance for those facing deportation challenges.

Taking seven weeks, for example, to provide certificates of good character to our diaspora desperately seeking to legalise their status is bureaucratic, shameful and cruel.

2. Recruit lobbyists: The US decision-making system operates on lobbying decision-makers. The right allies are critical. TT must recruit professional lobbyists with close, trusted, high level relationships within the Trump administration.

These lobbyists can advocate on matters that affect our national goals. A lobbyist, for example, can illustrate how the recent suspension of aid to our national security apparatus is inconsistent with the US’s war on drugs and illegal migration.

3. Foster a regional Caricom response: Strength lies in unity. Caricom must create a regional strategy for engaging with the US by pooling resources, co-ordinating policies, and leveraging our bargaining power.

Already the PM of Bahamas, Philip Davis, has said point blank – and correctly so – that his country will not house deportees most likely from Haiti. We cannot leave the Bahamas alone to face Trump and naively wait to realise that we may be next.

4. Strengthen relationships with key allies: Diversifying our alliances is essential. We must deepen partnerships with China, India, Canada, Denmark, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Brazil. This increases opportunities for trade, investments, and technical co-operation, reducing our dependence on any single global power.

We can use GRULAC (Group of Latin American and the Caribbean) at the UN to engineer a regional response.

We are home to large African and Indian diasporas which must be leveraged in support of a strategic global outreach. We will soon have a PM of Chinese descent who must help in promoting investments from the world’s second largest economy.

5. Appoint a sophisticated ambassador to Washington: Our ambassador to the US must be a figure of multiculturalism, intelligence, diplomatic sagacity, competence and diplomacy. A skilled, shrewd individual of diligence and integrity who engages productively, respectfully and assertively with influential figures like Marco Rubio will be pivotal.

6. Enhance foreign service skills: A modernised and well-trained foreign service with expertise in negotiation, foreign policy, and network diplomacy is essential for our competitiveness and relevance.

Multilingual and multicultural representatives with sharp business acumen will help in our ambition to gain financially and otherwise from our foreign policy initiatives.

7. Learn from “best practice” engagements: Nations like Canada and Colombia offer valuable lessons in engaging the Trump administration.

Canada’s focus on constructive dialogue, understated threats, and finding mutually beneficial solutions is one approach. Colombia’s most recent unsuccessful challenge is another. We must also monitor Brazil, India and Mexico’s approaches.

Singapore’s former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong once said, "You need to deal with the US as it is, not as you wish it were." This pragmatic approach underscores the fact that to succeed globally one has to be clinically focused on national interests and proactively adopt rational policies.

We must reach the stage where we say – to our mission in China, for example – either bring in US$200 million in FDIs (foreign direct investments) during a specified period or we change the mission’s leadership.

It is time for TT to move from “wha we go do” to “let’s do what we can.”

As the Mighty Sniper reminded us in 1965: We are small but can be overwhelming in worth.

RODNEY CHARLES

Naparima MP