Po­lit­i­cal con­sul­tant and Di­rec­tor of the Caribbean De­vel­op­ment Re­search Ser­vices (CADRES), Pe­ter Wick­ham, is warn­ing that the es­ca­lat­ing dis­pute be­tween the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com) and Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is dam­ag­ing re­gion­al uni­ty and di­vert­ing at­ten­tion from more sub­stan­tive is­sues.

Speak­ing in an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Wick­ham de­scribed the on­go­ing back-and-forth as “most un­for­tu­nate,” ar­gu­ing that the pub­lic na­ture of the dis­agree­ment is un­der­min­ing the cred­i­bil­i­ty of the re­gion­al body.

“I know this has de­scend­ed in­to a con­ver­sa­tion about whether her for­eign min­is­ter could have and should have been in­vit­ed, whether he had sick­ness or not,” Wick­ham said. “This is an un­for­tu­nate dis­cus­sion that is bring­ing a ma­jor and im­por­tant is­sue in­to dis­re­pute.”