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In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor An­tho­ny Vieira last night raised con­cerns in the Sen­ate about whether Trinidad and To­ba­go’s 2026 bud­get ac­counts for pos­si­ble re­gion­al in­sta­bil­i­ty aris­ing from height­ened ten­sions be­tween Venezuela and the Unit­ed States.

He not­ed that while life in Trinidad and To­ba­go re­mains nor­mal and the coun­try is not at war, the bud­get as­sumes a sta­ble ex­ter­nal en­vi­ron­ment, un­in­ter­rupt­ed trade, en­er­gy ex­ports, and in­vestor con­fi­dence—as­sump­tions now chal­lenged by geopo­lit­i­cal de­vel­op­ments.

Vieira high­light­ed risks to the en­er­gy sec­tor, par­tic­u­lar­ly projects like the Drag­on gas field, which de­pend on cross-bor­der co­op­er­a­tion and for­eign in­vest­ment. He ques­tioned whether pro­ject­ed en­er­gy rev­enues had been stress-test­ed against po­lit­i­cal risk, not­ing that ris­ing re­gion­al in­sta­bil­i­ty could slow in­vest­ment, in­crease in­sur­ance costs, and erode fis­cal space.