Trinidad to honour maritime treaty

Grenada's Foreign Minister Peter David says he has been given the assurance by his counterpart in Trinidad and Tobago that the new Persad-Bissessar administration will honour a boundary delimitation treaty signed between the two countries earlier this year.

David made the disclosure following a weekend meeting with Foreign Minister Dr Surujrattan Rambachan in Port of Spain and in light of objections to the signing of the accord by then Opposition leader Persad Bissessar.

The agreement was signed days before the May 24 general election in Trinidad and Tobago by then Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his Grenadian counterpart Tillman Thomas.

"A treaty was signed and the foreign minister himself indicated that a treaty was signed we have an agreement and both countries are bound by it," David told reporters on his return from Port of Spain.

"Whatever is said on a political platform in the course of a political campaigning must be taken with a pinch of salt."

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who leads the United National Congress (UNC), had called on Manning to "cease and desist" from signing the Maritime Boundary Delimitation Treaty with Grenada during the campaign, warning that the new government would review the agreement through public consultation.

Strong objections

The main opposition New National Party (NDP) in Grenada had also objected strongly to the accord and accused the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDP) of entering into a deal without complete knowledge of the area's oil and gas potential.

But David insisted that the five month administration in Port of Spain has no intention of reviewing the treaty.

"We both agreed that there is a treaty and we both agree mostly that the treaty envisages an outcome that benefits both Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada," David said.

"The outcome of the meeting with the Trinidad and Tobago foreign Minister was a clear indication to me that we are on the right path."

David and Rambachan also discussed a broad range of cooperation initiatives between the two countries covering education, energy, fisheries as well as upgrading the Grenada House in Port of Spain.

"There was an agreement that we need to put in place the mechanism that the treaty envisages which would pull together all of the diffe-rent areas such as fisheries, energy and all of the various ministries and technical persons to look at how we effect the treaty," David said.

"All of us in Grenada and Trinidad believe that there is much potential on the areas straddling the border and therefore it is urgent that we do all that is possible to move quickly to extract whatever resources that are there," he added.