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Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day sig­nalled her ad­min­is­tra­tion’s in­ten­tion to ex­pand Trinidad and To­ba­go’s eco­nom­ic re­la­tion­ship with In­dia, de­scrib­ing the South Asian coun­try as a “trust­ed friend and re­li­able part­ner” that shares this na­tion’s de­mo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues and de­vel­op­ment as­pi­ra­tions.

Ad­dress­ing a joint sit­ting of Par­lia­ment in ho­n­our of vis­it­ing In­dia Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Mo­di, Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s re­marks were punc­tu­at­ed by desk-thump­ing ap­proval, most­ly from the Gov­ern­ment bench.

She de­scribed Mo­di’s two-day vis­it as a sym­bol of South-South diplo­ma­cy and a time­ly call to deep­en bi­lat­er­al co­op­er­a­tion.