Min­is­ter of De­fence, Wayne Sturge, says ques­tions touch­ing on the state of mil­i­tary as­sets, their ac­qui­si­tion, or re­quests for such as­sets, par­tic­u­lar­ly where dis­cussed in cam­era with al­lies, would not be en­ter­tained.

In a state­ment, Sturge said a cam­paign of what he called mis­in­for­ma­tion by the Op­po­si­tion and sec­tions of the me­dia has cen­tred on high­ly sen­si­tive na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty mat­ters, in­clud­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s co­op­er­a­tion with the Unit­ed States in com­bat­ing nar­co-ter­ror­ism and pro­tect­ing the coun­try from threats is­sued by the Gov­ern­ment of Venezuela.

He said the nar­ra­tive ex­pand­ed to sug­gest that the Gov­ern­ment was com­plic­it in tak­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go in­to a war with Venezuela, “a war which nev­er hap­pened”.