PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Express - China’s Ambassador to T&T, Huang Xingyuan, has updated Beijing’s upbeat prospects for relations with the Caribbean, with T&T identified as the centrepiece of related arrangements. It was this country that Chinese President Xin Xinping chose for an historic state visit involving meetings here with Caribbean leaders. 

In last week’s Business Express, Ambassador Xingyuan characterised T&T as a Caribbean “regional power”, likening that stature to China’s in Asia. Though an element of diplomatic stroking of T&T’s ego must be taken for granted, the emerging Asian superpower’s interest in expanding and deepening ties with this country, and the region, is equally evident.

Forty years after diplomatic relations were established, it falls to the People’s Partnership administration to open a T&T embassy in the People’s Republic of China. Affirming T&T’s physical presence in Beijing should prove a critical milestone along the way to securing more mutually beneficial relations.