PM: ARMADA IS US BUSINESS

CCNTV6

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has responded to U.S. President Donald Trump's recent threats to Venezuela, affirming that Trinidad and Tobago will not be involved in any blockade and that the country's safety and security remain the government's top priority.

Transcript

00:00Prime Minister Kamala Pesad-Besasa responds to the U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to Venezuela

00:07that the South American country is surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the

00:13Southern Hemisphere and it will only get bigger. Trinidad and Tobago is about Trinidad and Tobago

00:19first. Our partnership with the United States is about Trinidad and Tobago, safety and security here.

00:26Those are issues for the Trump administration and for the United States. Trinidad and Tobago is no

00:33part of that blockade. We are about Trinidad and Tobago. On Trump's call for Venezuela to return

00:40oil, land and other assets, the Prime Minister said these issues belong to the United States

00:46while Trinidad and Tobago focuses on tackling drugs, human trafficking and gun running.

00:52Those may be his items on his agenda. The items on the agenda for Trinidad and Tobago is about drugs,

01:00drug running, human trafficking, gun running. That is our safety and security. They may have

01:07their own agenda there which they are free to pursue. That's their sovereignty. For me,

01:12it is about the drugs, it's about human trafficking, narco trafficking, all the horrid things.

01:18We can't be living here with over 600 murders per year, man, and feel that everything is onkidori

01:25and we are in a zone of peace. We are not. Trinidad and Tobago is definitely not in a peaceful place,

01:30but it's getting better.

01:32Passat-Bissasso reaffirmed that Trinidad and Tobago has not been asked to assist in any blockade

01:38against Venezuela.

01:39Our position is to keep TNT as safe as we can. TNT first. That will always be our position.

01:46We have no intention of engaging in any war with Venezuela. I've always said we stand in solidarity

01:53with the people of Venezuela and we will continue so to do.

01:57She also declined to comment on reports about the U.S. radar capabilities in Tobago,

02:02reported by the New York Times, citing the source as anonymous.

02:07I will not respond to an anonymous story carried in another newspaper. You all write newspapers,

02:15you know where you get your anonymous sources from, and when you don't get a source but you

02:19write a story. So I cannot respond to an anonymous source from a paper abroad. I can't respond to

02:27every newspaper article.

02:28On the termination of gas agreements by Venezuela, the Prime Minister reminded that Trinidad and

02:34Tobago has a self-sufficient energy sector and does not depend on Venezuelan supplies.

02:40And at that time I said, at this time, if we could get that gas and oil we wanted, we do not need it.

02:46We have had over 100 years of an oil and gas economy and not one drop of oil, not one drop of oil

02:55oil has come from Venezuela. We have Exxon, we have others working within our fields, we have expanded

03:00more fields. Yes, we will welcome the gas, but right now we don't need it. If they don't want to give it.

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