DA­REECE PO­LO

To­ba­go’s au­ton­o­my de­bate has gained re­gion­al back­ing, with the Nevis Pre­mier Mark Brant­ley warn­ing that small­er is­lands in twin-is­land states are too of­ten treat­ed as af­ter­thoughts. He not­ed that the con­cern was sharp­ened by the in­stal­la­tion of a radar sys­tem in To­ba­go last year, and his gov­ern­ment’s ac­cep­tance of third-par­ty de­por­tees from the US with­out con­sul­ta­tion.

Brant­ley yes­ter­day told Guardian Me­dia the time has long passed for small­er is­lands to re­ceive the re­spect of the larg­er ones. He was speak­ing via Zoom af­ter leav­ing for Nevis fol­low­ing the open­ing of Cari­com’s 50th Heads of Gov­ern­ment meet­ing.