THE Government should have employed a more diplomatic approach through back channels in addressing Venezuela’s claims of Trinidadian involvement in an armed incursion into its territory, former foreign affairs minister Winston Dookeran has said.

Dookeran said yesterday that the relevant State agencies should have engaged counterparts in Venezuela, and the first handling of the matter should have been done out of the public eye.

He was responding to questions from the Sunday Express, stating in a telephone interview that he does not believe the current tensions would escalate into deeper conflict.