For gen­er­a­tions, the Caribbean has recog­nised that the for­tunes of its na­tions are in­ter­con­nect­ed. Eco­nom­ic hard­ship, mi­gra­tion pres­sures and hu­man­i­tar­i­an crises rarely re­main con­fined with­in na­tion­al bor­ders. This shared re­al­i­ty helps ex­plain why Cari­com has long main­tained re­la­tions with Cu­ba de­spite dif­fer­ing po­lit­i­cal sys­tems.

As the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly pre­pares to vote on a res­o­lu­tion call­ing for an end to the Unit­ed States’ eco­nom­ic em­bar­go of Cu­ba, Trinidad and To­ba­go has an op­por­tu­ni­ty to bal­ance con­cerns about democ­ra­cy with hu­man­i­tar­i­an con­sid­er­a­tions and re­gion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty. The Gov­ern­ment’s po­si­tion de­serves care­ful re­con­sid­er­a­tion.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has been clear about her con­cerns re­gard­ing Cu­ba’s de­mo­c­ra­t­ic cre­den­tials. Those con­cerns are le­git­i­mate. Yet sup­port­ing re­lief from eco­nom­ic sanc­tions does not re­quire en­dors­ing Cu­ba’s po­lit­i­cal sys­tem. The em­bar­go, in place in var­i­ous forms for more than six decades, has re­peat­ed­ly drawn crit­i­cism from the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty. Al­though the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly res­o­lu­tion is not legal­ly bind­ing, it pro­vides a plat­form for coun­tries to ex­press their views on the con­se­quences of long­stand­ing eco­nom­ic re­stric­tions.

Re­stric­tions on trade, fi­nance and ac­cess to es­sen­tial sup­plies have con­tributed to fu­el short­ages, elec­tric­i­ty dis­rup­tions and lim­it­ed ac­cess to ba­sic goods, ex­ac­er­bat­ing hard­ships for or­di­nary Cubans. It is against this back­drop that 11 for­mer Caribbean lead­ers, in­clud­ing for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, re­cent­ly urged coun­tries to sup­port the res­o­lu­tion, fram­ing the is­sue as one of hu­man­i­tar­i­an re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and re­gion­al uni­ty.

There is al­so a ques­tion of con­sis­ten­cy in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s for­eign pol­i­cy. Ear­li­er this month, Cab­i­net ap­proved the es­tab­lish­ment of this coun­try’s first em­bassy in the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates and en­tered in­to an in­vest­ment agree­ment linked to grant fund­ing for the Cou­va Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal. The UAE is a fed­er­a­tion of hered­i­tary monar­chies where po­lit­i­cal par­ties and na­tion­al elec­tions do not ex­ist. If Trinidad and To­ba­go can pur­sue diplo­mat­ic and eco­nom­ic co­op­er­a­tion with Abu Dhabi with­out mak­ing mul­ti­par­ty democ­ra­cy a pre­con­di­tion, it is rea­son­able to ask why de­mo­c­ra­t­ic dif­fer­ences should be treat­ed dif­fer­ent­ly in re­la­tions with Cu­ba.

The is­sue is not mere­ly diplo­mat­ic. For more than five decades, Cu­ba has been a val­ued re­gion­al part­ner, train­ing hun­dreds of Trinida­di­an doc­tors and pro­vid­ing health­care pro­fes­sion­als who have helped strength­en our health sys­tem. Those con­tri­bu­tions have ben­e­fit­ed gen­er­a­tions of cit­i­zens and stand as a re­minder of the prac­ti­cal val­ue of re­gion­al co­op­er­a­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly for small states with lim­it­ed re­sources.

As Trinidad and To­ba­go pre­pares to take up its non-per­ma­nent seat on the Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil for 2027-2028, pre­serv­ing Cari­com uni­ty should al­so be a con­sid­er­a­tion. A di­vid­ed re­gion­al po­si­tion risks weak­en­ing our in­flu­ence as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of small is­land de­vel­op­ing states at a time when co­or­di­nat­ed ad­vo­ca­cy on cli­mate change, de­vel­op­ment fi­nanc­ing and se­cu­ri­ty re­mains es­sen­tial.

This is­sue need not be framed as sup­port for Cu­ba’s gov­ern­ment or op­po­si­tion to the Unit­ed States. Trinidad and To­ba­go can con­tin­ue to ad­vo­cate for democ­ra­cy and hu­man rights while ques­tion­ing whether broad eco­nom­ic sanc­tions re­main an ef­fec­tive or pro­por­tion­ate means of achiev­ing those ob­jec­tives.

Pro­vid­ing bi­lat­er­al as­sis­tance, as Gov­ern­ment min­is­ters have sug­gest­ed, is com­mend­able. But char­i­ty alone can­not sub­sti­tute for struc­tur­al re­lief. It is dif­fi­cult to mean­ing­ful­ly ease a neigh­bour’s suf­fer­ing while ac­cept­ing the con­tin­u­a­tion of mea­sures that con­strain its econ­o­my.

Be­fore cast­ing a vote that could leave this coun­try iso­lat­ed from many of its Caribbean neigh­bours and at odds with its long­stand­ing diplo­mat­ic tra­di­tion, the Gov­ern­ment should pause and re­con­sid­er its po­si­tion.