Experts say Venezuela-T&T energy negotiations are still complicated as diplomacy continues and domestic criticism heats up.
Raphael John-Lall For-mer head of the In-sti-tute of In-ter-na-tion-al Re-la-tions at the Uni-ver-si-ty of the West In-dies (UWI), Dr An-tho-ny Gon-za-les, says Venezuela’s act-ing Pres-i-dent Del-cy Ro-dríguez should be free to dress as she choos-es, while urg-ing the Gov-ern-ment to “tone down” its crit-i-cism of Cara-cas amid on-go-ing diplo-mat-ic and en-er-gy ne-go-ti-a-tions.. “You can-not tell Venezuela’s act-ing Pres-i-dent what to wear.. She can wear what she wants.. I don’t see the fuss,” he told Guardian
Me-dia in a tele-phone in-ter-view.. How-ev-er, Gon-za-les cau-tioned that Trinidad and To-ba-go must pri-ori-tise con-clud-ing en-er-gy ne-go-ti-a-tions with Venezuela, not-ing what he de-scribed as a con-cern-ing lack of pub-lic ac-knowl-edge-ment from Venezue-lan lead-er-ship to-ward the T&T Gov-ern-ment.. “There seems to be some-thing hap-pen-ing.. The Venezue-lans are not push-ing be-cause of the ten-sions in the past.. I think that T&T’s Gov-ern-ment must tone down its crit-i-cism of Venezuela,” he said.. “T&T’s lead-er-ship thought that the US
Gov-ern-ment would change the en-tire Venezue-lan Gov-ern-ment and it did not hap-pen.. The Amer-i-cans don’t want Iraq-type chaos in the re-gion.” He ex-pressed con-fi-dence that de-spite diplo-mat-ic ten-sions, com-mer-cial en-er-gy arrange-ments in-volv-ing multi-na-tion-al com-pa-nies would still pro-ceed.. “The pri-vate sec-tor and multi-na-tion-als will even-tu-al-ly bring the gas here,” Gon-za-les said.. “T&T’s Gov-ern-ment should just sit qui-et-ly and deal with all sides.” His com-ments come as For-eign and Cari-com Af-fairs Min-is-ter Sean Sobers said Trinidad and
To-ba-go is fo-cused on ad-vanc-ing diplo-mat-ic and en-er-gy ne-go-ti-a-tions with Venezuela, rather than com-men-tary on the at-tire or jew-ellery worn by Ro-dríguez.. Sobers made the re-marks dur-ing last week’s post-Cab-i-net me-dia brief-ing, amid con-tro-ver-sy sur-round-ing a brooch worn by Ro-dríguez de-pict-ing a map of Venezuela that in-cludes Guyana’s Es-se-qui-bo re-gion.. Last month, Guyana Pres-i-dent Ir-faan Ali wrote to Cari-com chair-man Ter-rance Drew ob-ject-ing to the use of the brooch dur-ing of-fi-cial re-gion-al en-gage-ments.. Mean-while, Venezue-lan
en-er-gy an-a-lyst Dr Ein-stein Mil-lán Ar-cia, a for-mer ad-vis-er to PDVSA, said prospects for fi-nal-is-ing new en-er-gy agree-ments re-main “com-plex,” de-spite on-go-ing diplo-mat-ic en-gage-ment.. He pre-vi-ous-ly served as ad-vis-er to the late Venezue-lan Oil Min-is-ter and PDVSA pres-i-dent Nel-son Martínez.. In ear-ly April, Prime Min-is-ter Kam-la Per-sad-Bisses-sar an-nounced plans for a diplo-mat-ic del-e-ga-tion to trav-el to Cara-cas to ad-vance talks on stalled en-er-gy projects, in-clud-ing the Drag-on gas ini-tia-tive and the Lo-ran-Man-a-tee field, as part
of ef-forts to se-cure T&T’s “just share” of cross-bor-der re-sources.. Mil-lán Ar-cia said po-lit-i-cal con-sid-er-a-tions must be set aside if com-mer-cial progress is to be achieved.. “The diplo-mat-ic del-e-ga-tion to Cara-cas has one mis-sion: to se-cure op-er-a-tions across cross-bor-der oil and gas as-sets where Venezuela has the largest share, and with-out which de-vel-op-ment ef-forts on the T&T side will be-come un-eco-nom-ic,” he said.. He said diplo-mat-ic con-straints, in-clud-ing Venezuela’s des-ig-na-tion of cer-tain of-fi-cials as per-sona
non gra-ta, con-tin-ue to com-pli-cate en-gage-ment.. “These com-plex-i-ties are ex-pect-ed to con-tin-ue be-yond the ap-par-ent word-ing.. In sum-ma-ry, Del-cy Ro-dríguez is ex-pect-ed to con-tin-ue is-su-ing strong warn-ings through diplo-mat-ic chan-nels, while still shap-ing the space for both busi-ness and po-lit-i-cal en-gage-ment,” he said.
Venezuela energy talks, Trinidad and Tobago Venezuela relations, Delcy Rodríguez brooch controversy, cross-border gas projects, CARICOM diplomacy, PDVSA energy agreements