The Caricom arena will certainly have obtained some international notoriety last week, with the visits of US Vice President Biden, and then China’s President Xi Jinping to Trinidad & Tobago. Both visits were attended by a number of Caricom heads of government, their presence in Port of Spain being more inclusive in the case of Biden than in the case of the Chinese President whose country is only recognised by some of the states of Caricom.
While Biden’s visit was concerned with getting a general perception of Caricom thinking, in addition to signing some agreements in the sphere of trade and advancing assistance, for example in education and security, the Chinese President’s visit was more directly aimed at Trinidad & Tobago, information on the visit indicating a desire on the part of that country to explore the prospects of the importation of natural gas, as well as consolidating arrangements for project construction in that country.
Host Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar is said to have described the talks with Biden as “brutal,” but while, from all accounts the discussions were indeed frank, particularly on matters of security, and more importantly the deportation of convicted nationals of Caribbean states from the United States, it is probably more precise to say that in the case of the latter, our heads found the Vice President willing to listen, but unyielding.
In addition the Vice President with years and years in the rough and tumble of American politics and parliamentary interchange in the American Senate, seems to have demonstrated to our heads, perhaps unexpectedly, that he is well able to engage in the back-and-forth of political exchanges which they themselves like to specialize in. He himself described the discussions as characterized by “frankness and directness… and completely straightforward” – really no more or no less than our heads might have expected.
For the fact that the Americans should appear to be unyielding on decisions that they have already made, should not have surprised our leaders. In spite of all the pleading that they have done concerning the effects of American insistence on direct implementation of the WTO agreement, there have been no concessions – whether in the case of the banana trade, a now dead issue, or Antigua’s victory on the internet gambling issue still being pursued ‒ by successive presidents whether the Democrats Clinton or Obama, or the Republican Bush.
And while the Americans will have, no doubt, been pleased with the signing of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, a kind of adjunct to the CBI, our heads will have been well aware that only recently President Obama was down in Central America meeting the heads of state there (including the Prime Minister of Caricom member-state Belize and Cariforum state the Dominican Republic) and celebrating, as it were, the implementation of the US-DR-Central America Free Trade Area, the real objective, in the Caribbean, of the United States, as various kinds of agreements subsidiary to the WTO agreement are now being explored by them all over the world. In that regard, they must see Caricom as behind on a major issue of international economic relations, and probably no longer willing to press to hard.
So it is probably true to say that while Trinidad & Tobago, and Prime Minister Persad Bissessar, certainly got kudos from the Vice President’s visit, our heads (not all of whom were personally in attendance) will have been satisfied to note the continuing American interest in security and the implementation of the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI), and the specific initiative which Biden presented for assistance (US$21M)towards effective and widespread long-term use of the internet for furthering education in our area, and for facilitating its use in business communication and innovation, while we continue to press the US on more satisfactory measures to ameliorate the effects of the deportation issue.
While heads of government that recognize the People’s Republic were also present in Trinidad for President Xi Jinping’s visit, it will be obvious that the centrepiece of his visit was bilateral discussions with the Trindad government, as China pursues its policy of geographic diversification of, and therefore minimising of dependence on, sources of natural gas.
The Chinese are well aware of the positive acceptance by Caricom states of their aid initiatives pursued under the aegis of the China-Caribbean Cooperation Forum. But while they make no fuss about it, they are well aware of the lack of consensus and policy uniformity in Caricom on the issue of recognition, which is for the People’s Republic the defining issue in their relations with countries.
In the last few years, China has witnessed a swing by Grenada from recognition of Taiwan to herself, and a reversal of St Lucia’s allegiance and its swing back to recognition of Taiwan, then the late Sir John Compton’s frustrated effort to return to recognition of the People’s Republic. China is quite prepared to wait the region out.
President Xi, as he departed Trinidad for Costa Rica, will also have been well aware that his country has faced the same predicament in Central America, as Costa Rica remains the only country in the isthmus that does not still maintain recognition of Taiwan.
So for China, a visit to the region has an air of unfinished business in both his country and the region’s geopolitical arrangements. The President will have been well aware that in Guyana Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago a visit by him has a special resonance, given the presence of longstanding Chinese descendants there. His visit to Trinidad, which recognized the People’s Republic nearly forty years ago, has a certain aura and rationale which will not exist in other states where there is no historic presence.
For the time being, that resonance draws the huge People’s Republic to the Caribbean, of which, as a geopolitically unified area, the Caribbean Community should have been able to take more advantage.
