Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 07/Oct 10:01

Dragon gift Trojan horse in making?

THE EDITOR: TT must dispassionately assess the feasibility of the Marco Rubio Dragon gift to pre-empt it from being seen and assume the image of a Trojan horse. The current offer of the Dragon OFAC licence brought home by Prime Minister Kamla Bissessar-Persad from her Washington meeting with US Secretary of State Rubio has minimal prospects via Shell of reaching bilateral agreement stage, taking into account the increasing US threat and build-up of military forces against Maduro, the hostile and adversarial level of current TT/Venezuela relations and the pro-US tone of TT's United Nations General Assembly statement. If the OFAC licence were to viewed in Caracas as a quid pro quo for TT's support of the current US naval blockade off Venezuela, then the reception in Caracas to this development will be less than lukewarm. It cannot be business as usual with the threats of Venezuela resuming Spanish empire control over TT issued by Interior, Justice and Peace Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino López. Time and third-party diplomacy must be allowed to sanitise and calm the muddy and turbulent waters respectively of the Gulf of Paria before any Dragon rapprochement can be initiated with Caracas by TT, because the wounds are too fresh. Additionally, the US armada has to withdraw from the Caribbean Sea and from posing any threat to the sovereignty and political independence of Venezuela. I am a bit confused as to what the US-imposed conditionality of no "...significant benefit to the Maduro regime..." means, since millions of US dollars have already been remitted to Caracas by the previous PNM regime for the Dragon that did not dance to the soca and meringue conga line. If the UNC government was in constant contact with the US government just after April 28 to secure/activate the defunct Dragon gas licence deal, why did the TT government pronounce it as dead and, secondly, adopted a strong adversarial, use-of-force stance with Caracas when quiet diplomacy conducted with Delcy Rodriguez was to be used to clinch the Dragon gas deal? It just does not add up. It takes two to tango. This is a call for sensitivity, accountability, consistency, damage control, the geo-strategic imperatives and diplomacy to be factored into the forging of further TT/Venezuela relations. STEPHEN KANGAL Caroni The post Dragon gift Trojan horse in making? appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.