Dragon’s difficult path

WHAT the Prime Minister and Stuart Young worked on for years, the Trump administration has undone in a few moments.

“We are hereby reversing the concessions that crooked Joe Biden gave to Nicolas Maduro, of Venezuela,” the US president announced in a message on the platform ironically known as Truth Social on February 26.

Additionally, in a separate “tweet” hours later, his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, chimed in on what was already a fait accompli, saying he was “providing foreign policy guidance to terminate all Biden-era oil and gas licences that have shamefully bankrolled the illegitimate Maduro regime.”

In response, a somewhat dazed and chastened Mr Young on the same day told Whitehall reporters, “We have always said it is impossible to predict the future.”

However, all of this was foreseeable.

Indeed, Dr Rowley’s indication of an intention to open a channel with Washington on February 11 was proof that the Cabinet was weary. It could not have been caught off guard. It should already have a plan.

The ball is in the Americans’ court. In a way, the government’s focus on the statements of the Opposition Leader and their impact on Caracas is beside the point. The person who matters at this moment is not Kamla Persad-Bissessar. It is not even Mr Maduro.

As much as things have been thrown into doubt, we believe there is a path through which the energy deals that are in the balance, including the Dragon gas arrangement, may still happen.

That path involves a complete shift in approach.

Dr Rowley’s stance that by invoking the need for Caricom-wide energy security might persuade the US to allow gas to flow is already outdated.

It assumes we are dealing with a rational, benevolent world power, not an arbitrary demagogue who has broken alliances, cut foreign aid, threatened to annex countries and made Ukraine beg for its freedom in exchange for minerals.

The only way forward is for TT to offer a deal. The only morality the White House might understand is expressed in US dollars. Placing emphasis, too, on Dragon’s potential to help stem Venezuela’s migrant crisis is key.

All is not lost.

Still, this week’s invitation by King Charles to the US president for an unprecedented second UK state visit, issued while a parade of visiting world leaders bowed down in the Oval Office, is but the latest sign of the stunning transformation of the global order.

It is an order in which what matters now are no longer things like shared economic alliances, peace, stability, the rule of law, sovereignty or even facts. All that matters now is the appeasement of the one true monarch, Donald Trump.