Thursday, 14 November 2013 00:22
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Port of Spain: Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar will not be attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka this week due to her busy schedule, her office has announced.
The Prime Minister’s office has insisted that she was not boycotting the meeting.
Originally, Persad-Bissessar has planned to lead the delegation to the CHOGM after an official visit to China.
According to the Prime Minister’s spokesman, Francis Joseph, the trip to China last week was cancelled by mutual agreement of T&T and China. Both countries are looking to reschedule the trip next year, the spokesman has said.
“The reason for not going to CHOGM is because of matters she has to deal with in Trinidad,” the Spokesman has told the Trinidad & Tobago Guardian.
When asked whether Persad-Bissessar was boycotting CHOGM to draw attention to Sri Lanka’s human rights record, the Spokesman has said that it was not.
“I have not been told of any boycott by the PM. I am aware that other countries are doing that but that is not the case with Mrs. Persad-Bissessar,” the PM’s Spokesman has said.
According to official government sources back-to-back local government elections and by-election have prevented her attendance.
In the absence of the PM, the T&T Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Dookeran will be attending the Commonwealth meeting that is set to Commence on Friday in Colombo.
Dookeran will be joined by the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, Reynold Cooper, who is already in Colombo attending the Commonwealth Business Forum.
In an e-mailed response to questions submitted by the T&T Guardian, the Prime Minister’s special adviser Shem Baldeosingh has said there could be no inference of a boycott because T&T was being represented by its Foreign Minister.
He has said that President of Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth Secretary General were informed of the Prime Minister’s inability to travel to Colombo to attend the meeting.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mauritius Navin Chandra Ramgoolam have decided to boycott the Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka citing the country’s poor human right record as the reason.
