00:00Opposition Senator Dr. Amy Brong says government is attempting to paint an overly positive
00:05picture of Trinidad and Tobago's foreign relations amid growing regional and international concerns.
00:12Speaking with reporters on Friday, Brong questioned the direction of the country's foreign policy
00:17and suggested recent diplomatic engagements were being used to improve public perception.
00:23So yes, there will be photo ops and lots of trips to Washington DC and posturing to try
00:30to make it seem that foreign service is heading in a direction of benefit to this country.
00:39It isn't.
00:39They will try to make it seem like foreign policy is of some benefit to the region.
00:45It absolutely isn't.
00:47Trinidad and Tobago's foreign postures is a regional disgrace and an international
00:54one as well with many countries wondering what has happened to our independent voice, what
01:00has happened to the principles on which Trinidad and Tobago was founded.
01:04Brong also raised the concerns over statements made regarding alleged security threats at the
01:09parliament, saying questions that should be directed to the officers responsible for securing
01:14the compound.
01:15I think the best persons to ask about security at the parliament would be the staff of this
01:23department that are tasked with that responsibility and I saw a few quotations in the media that
01:30suggest that the parliamentary security, those who are paid by the taxpayer to defend this
01:38building and its occupants had no idea what the attorney general was talking about.
01:44The opposition senator further suggested that vague security warnings issued by government
01:50officials have in the past been used to distract from criticism directed at the administration.
01:56And that concerned me because if that is so, this would not be the first time that this
02:03prime minister and ministers across two administrations would have used very vague threats against high
02:13high-level persons as either distraction or a means of deflecting from other concerns directed against the
02:26actions of the government itself.
02:28Shala Kisto, TV6 News.
