B’dos, TT PMs talk about dispute

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning and Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur have agreed that the boundary dispute between both countries should be resolved with the “minimum of acrimony.” Manning said the two men had no formal meeting, but in “waiting around” for another meeting, spoke about the dispute.

Asked whether Arthur accepted any blame for the hostility which developed,  or whether he questioned why there was this “back-stabbing” from the Barbados Government, Manning said: “Some of the thing that worry you, don’t seem to worry me. You see back-stabbing, I consider it . . .   unfortunately in the current situation . . .  I almost said par for the course, but it is not unexpected and therefore if it happens, I don’t get hung up on those things.”

Asked whether he agreed with the Head of the Law Association who stated that the Caribbean Court of Justice might be affected by the various maritime disputes,  Manning said on his last visit to Barbados, Arthur “went out of his way” to assure that the CCJ and Caricom Single Market and Economy would not be affected by the deliberations between the two countries.

He said Barbados had also reiterated its support for Trinidad and Tobago candidature for the FTAA headquarters. Manning said he wanted to put on record, Government’s gratitude to Barbados’ Foreign Minister Dame Billy Miller, who led a Caricom mission to Latin America to lobby for Trinidad and Tobago’s candidature.