President of Guyana, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, says the partnership between his country and Trinidad and Tobago must be mutually beneficial to maintain success.
President Ali was speaking at the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce’s Annual Meeting & Outlook for 2026/2027 event in Port of Spain on Friday.
Speaking on the theme “Strengthening Trinidad and Tobago-Guyana Energy Collaboration in a New Regional Energy Era”, he outlined an extensive plan designed to bolster Trinidad and Tobago’s and Guyana’s working relationship on both the governmental and private sector levels.
He stressed that for the partnership to be successful, there must be active cooperation by all stakeholders.
“We can’t come and say we want to manage the gas plan. It’s an opportunity you’ll hear about soon, but then you can’t bring two containers of lime into Trinidad and Tobago. It doesn’t work, let us be honest. It cannot work, and we must end this nonsense now. It is complete nonsense. It is mind-blowing that we can’t sit in a room together as government and private sector and fix these problems.”
President Ali was adamant that there will be no meaningful cooperation unless the issues that currently exist are addressed.
“So let’s not talk about partnership and talk about coming together if we can’t fix these problems. If you care about partnership, if we care about building consortiums, care about building a joint, and I can tell you that is the best way forward: a joint economic front between Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, then we must care about fixing the problem, and let’s get in that room, lock ourselves up for 72 hours and fix the darn problem and come out the room.”
Speaking to the media following the event, President Ali was asked if he was optimistic that the regional bloc will achieve its goals of full integration.
“We have to, there is no other choice. We have to make CARICOM stronger. We have to make CARICOM work, and we have to make CARICOM results-oriented and we have to achieve results. We don’t have an option.”