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Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has been in­vit­ed by Unit­ed States Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump to at­tend what has been dubbed the Shield of the Amer­i­c­as sum­mit in Do­ral, Flori­da, sig­nalling deep­en­ing en­gage­ment be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Wash­ing­ton.

News of the in­vi­ta­tion emerged af­ter her pri­vate meet­ing with US Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Ru­bio on the side­lines of the 50th Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment meet­ing in Bas­seterre, St Kitts, yes­ter­day.

Fol­low­ing the ear­ly-morn­ing ple­nary ses­sion, Per­sad-Bisses­sar left for bi­lat­er­al talks with Ru­bio. When Guardian Me­dia spoke to her short­ly af­ter­wards, she said she had lim­it­ed de­tails as the in­vi­ta­tion had just come to her at­ten­tion, but ex­pressed op­ti­mism about what lies ahead.