For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers says Trinidad and To­ba­go is more con­cerned with the sub­stance of diplo­mat­ic en­gage­ment with Venezuela than with the cloth­ing or jew­ellery worn by act­ing Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez.

Sobers made the com­ment dur­ing yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing, while re­spond­ing to ques­tions about con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing a brooch worn by Ro­dríguez de­pict­ing a map of Venezuela that in­cludes Guyana’s Es­se­qui­bo re­gion.

Last month, Guyana’s Pres­i­dent Dr Ir­faan Ali wrote to Cari­com Chair­man Dr Ter­rance Drew ob­ject­ing to Ro­dríguez’s use of the brooch dur­ing of­fi­cial en­gage­ments with re­gion­al lead­ers, in­clud­ing Bar­ba­dos Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley.