AMBASSADOR to Caricom Ralph Maraj says there is a new momentum in Trinidad and Tobago's relations with the US.

He made this comment on September 2, in response to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's rejection of statements by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that the deployment of US naval vessels to the southern Caribbean Sea was a prelude to an invasion of Venezuela and not drug interdiction as claimed by the Trump administration.

On August 26, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio identified TT as part of an alliance the US has formed to combat the flow of illegal drugs into the US. Guyana, Paraguay, Ecuador, and Argentina are the other countries in that alliance. Rubio repeated the importance of this alliance in a statement to congratulate TT on the 63rd anniversary of its independence.