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Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has de­scribed Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s crit­i­cism of Cari­com as “reck­less,” as she stressed the im­por­tance of strong re­gion­al ties with oth­er Caribbean coun­tries.

On Fri­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar was crit­i­cal of Cari­com, as she ac­cused the in­sti­tu­tion of be­ing an “un­re­li­able part­ner” which op­er­at­ed in a “dys­func­tion­al and self-de­struc­tive” man­ner.

In re­sponse, Prime Min­is­ter of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da Gas­ton Browne ar­gued that while Cari­com re­spects the rights of in­di­vid­ual na­tions to con­duct their own bi­lat­er­al af­fairs, sim­i­lar con­sid­er­a­tion and re­spect should be giv­en to their own ap­proach with the Unit­ed States.