Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment are con­ven­ing an ur­gent emer­gency meet­ing to­day to ad­dress an es­ca­lat­ing diplo­mat­ic rift sparked by Trinidad and To­ba­go’s for­mal protest over the man­ner in which the reap­point­ment of Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Car­la Bar­nett was han­dled.

The meet­ing, orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled for April 7 but de­layed due to state fu­ner­al pro­ceed­ings for for­mer Suri­name pres­i­dent Chan San­tokhi, is set for 2 pm, with Cari­com chair and St Kitts and Nevis Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ter­rance Drew ex­press­ing hope for the par­tic­i­pa­tion of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

The dis­pute cen­ters on al­le­ga­tions from Port-of-Spain that the reap­point­ment was not a for­mal agen­da item dur­ing the 50th Heads of Gov­ern­ment meet­ing in St Kitts and Nevis in Feb­ru­ary.