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Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has re­spond­ed to re­cent state­ments by Venezue­lan Vice Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez re­gard­ing the Drag­on gas project and the de­nun­ci­a­tion of the En­er­gy Co­op­er­a­tion Frame­work Agree­ment. Her com­ments were made in an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia Lim­it­ed.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said her gov­ern­ment will con­tin­ue to pur­sue its own en­er­gy and eco­nom­ic strate­gies. “Our fu­ture does not de­pend on Venezuela and nev­er has. We have our plans and projects to grow our econ­o­my both with­in the en­er­gy and non-en­er­gy sec­tors,” she told the me­dia out­let.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so high­light­ed the mis­takes of the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion, which she said re­lied heav­i­ly on the Drag­on gas project. “The last PNM gov­ern­ment mis­tak­en­ly placed all their hopes in the Drag­on project. We have not done so, there­fore we are not sus­cep­ti­ble to any black­mail from the Venezue­lans for po­lit­i­cal sup­port,” she said.