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A new chapter of deepened bilateral cooperation between India and Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) is set to unfold this week, as India’s Minister of External Affairs Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar commences a high-stakes two-day official visit to the Caribbean nation. This stop forms part of Jaishankar’s broader 9-day regional tour encompassing Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago, running from May 2 to 10, aimed at advancing mutually beneficial ties across the Caribbean. The visit is rooted in the momentum generated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official trip to T&T in July of last year, which saw a suite of bilateral memoranda of understanding (MoUs) signed to expand partnership. According to T&T’s Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Sean Sobers, Jaishankar’s visit will turn those signed agreements into tangible, on-the-ground action, with both governments sticking closely to the implementation timeline agreed 12 months prior.

Jaishankar’s packed official itinerary kicks off this afternoon at T&T’s Parliament building, where T&T Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar will deliver an official welcoming address. Following the opening ceremony, the two top leaders will hold formal bilateral talks to align on shared priorities. After discussions, the delegation will move to the Rotunda Gallery for a formal MoU exchange ceremony and the official handover of a batch of laptops donated as part of people-to-people cooperation.

On the second day of the visit, Saturday, the joint delegation will travel to Nelson Island, where both leaders will deliver public remarks and unveil a commemorative plaque honoring shared historical ties. Next on the schedule is a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new agro-processing facility at Namdevco in Brechin Castle, Couva, marking progress in agricultural development cooperation. A flagship initiative of the visit will follow: the official launch of T&T’s National Prosthetics Programme in the town of Penal, where Persad-Bissessar will deliver the keynote address and unveil a second commemorative plaque for the program. The visit will wrap up with two key engagements: an official lunch reception hosted by Persad-Bissessar in Penal, and a community reception at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Cultural Cooperation in Mt Hope, where Jaishankar will meet and interact with members of the large Indian diaspora community in T&T.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs has framed the entire regional tour as an effort to sustain the pace of high-level political engagement with the three Caribbean nations, while strengthening longstanding partnerships rooted in South-South cooperation and shared development goals. In a pre-visit op-ed published in a T&T newspaper Wednesday, Jaishankar outlined his priorities for the talks, noting that discussions will center on delivering concrete, actionable outcomes and accelerating the rapid expansion of bilateral economic engagement between India and T&T.

He highlighted that bilateral trade between the two nations has seen a dramatic upswing in recent years, having nearly doubled over the past five years to hit a current annual volume of US$350 million. Against a backdrop of global economic turbulence and volatile commodity markets, Jaishankar noted that energy cooperation has emerged as a central pillar of the bilateral relationship, with growth prospects only strengthening in coming years. Trade is also expanding steadily across a range of other key sectors, including healthcare and pharmaceuticals, automotive manufacturing, industrial machinery, iron and steel, and textiles and apparel. Notably, Jaishankar added, Trinidad and Tobago has become the first country in the Caribbean region to agree to roll out India’s United Payment Interface (UPI), a digital platform that enables low-cost, seamless cross-border digital payments.

Looking ahead, Jaishankar emphasized that the two nations hold immense untapped potential for expanded cooperation, a potential amplified by India’s far-reaching economic and technological transformation over the past decade. He noted that many of India’s homegrown development experiences can offer actionable, relevant models to support T&T’s own national development agenda. Key areas of mutual interest for future collaboration include the development of digital public infrastructure, frameworks for expanding access to affordable medical care, cutting-edge agricultural technologies, and specialized training modules for public sector professionals. “My expectation is that more conversations on changes under way will generate new ideas for our bilateral agenda,” Jaishankar added, signaling a forward-looking approach to deepening the decades-long partnership between the two nations.

A second horrific mass killing in just two weeks has plunged Trinidad and Tobago into renewed outrage over the ruling administration’s failed national security policies, with senior opposition lawmakers demanding the immediate departure of the country’s top two security officials.

The latest tragedy unfolded in Belmont, where a triple shooting left a two-year-old child dead, two adult men killed, and a mother fighting for her life in critical care. This attack comes only 14 days after another mass shooting in Morvant that claimed four lives, including a nine-year-old child.

Stuart Young, opposition Member of Parliament for Port of Spain North/St Ann’s West, was among the first to issue a blunt call for resignations, targeting Minister of Defence Wayne Sturge and Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander. Young slammed the ruling Kamla Persad-Bissessar-led government over its singular approach to surging violent crime: repeated declarations of states of emergency (SoE).

“For most of this administration’s tenure, the country has been locked under some form of state of emergency,” Young noted. “We are now on the third iteration of a United National Congress state of emergency, and mass killings continue without any slowdown. This government has no actual plan to curb violence, and it is ordinary law-abiding citizens who bear the cost.” He called the killing of the innocent toddler “unforgivable,” adding that the government’s failure on national security is now undeniable to the entire population.

Young also lashed out at Phillip Alexander, a junior minister in the Ministry of Housing, over what he called a blatantly politicized Facebook rant targeting his Belmont constituents in the wake of the shooting. “This deranged official, paid by the prime minister using taxpayer dollars, is adding insult to injury for families already reeling from senseless loss of life,” Young wrote on his own Facebook page. “No amount of empty, foolish ranting from government officials will give citizens any sense of safety or reassurance right now.”

Kareem Marcelle, opposition MP for Laventille West, framed the back-to-back killings of children as part of a deeply alarming, terrifying trend that has numbed communities to unthinkable violence. “We have reached the point where even these heinous acts no longer shock us,” Marcelle wrote in a social media statement. “Our youngest children are being killed before they even get the chance to grow up and chase their dreams.”

Marcelle drew a direct line between the latest death and a recent child killing laid to rest just days prior: “Just this past Friday, we buried young J’Layna. Less than a week later, another family is now forced to bury two-year-old Akini, along with his unfulfilled dreams and hope for the future. My heart breaks for these families. We are heading down a road from which we cannot return if we do not act now.” He extended his deepest condolences to the loved ones of all three victims, and added his prayers for the wounded mother’s full recovery.

Marvin Gonzales, opposition MP for Arouca/Lopinot, joined the calls for Roger Alexander’s removal, describing the homeland security minister as an “embarrassment” and a “national failure” who has been distracted from his core duty of keeping citizens safe. Gonzales also pushed for an end to the ongoing state of emergency, arguing that the policy has become an empty charade. “As of 2026, we have spent 97 days under this current state of emergency, and the country has already recorded 130 murders this year,” he noted. “It is past time for the government to end this farce and restore the constitutional rights of the Trinidad and Tobago people.”

In the wake of a shocking triple homicide in Belmont that claimed the life of a two-year-old boy and triggered opposition demands for his ousting, Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander has pushed back firmly against calls for his removal, vowing to fulfill his mandate to tackle the nation’s deepening gang-related crime crisis.

Speaking in a phone interview with the Express on Thursday, Alexander gave a public guarantee that all individuals linked to the recent killings would face full legal consequences, while appealing directly to community members to share intelligence with local law enforcement to help crack down on criminal activity.

The minister launched a counterattack on the opposition People’s National Movement (PNM), the party that led the country for a decade before the current United National Congress Government took office one year ago. Alexander argued that the same figures now demanding his resignation are the same officials who allowed gang activity and organized crime to spread unchecked across the country over ten years in power. He called the PNM’s calls for his removal deeply ironic, noting that gangs grew in influence and territorial control during the party’s tenure.

Alexander also pointed to the opposition’s recent decision to block the Zones of Special Operations (ZOSO) Bill, a piece of legislation he said would have enabled targeted, direct intervention in high-crime communities that the opposition claims to represent. He accused opposition lawmakers of abandoning the very constituents who voted them into office, saying, “They have the audacity to speak about who should go and who shouldn’t go. They should have gone ten years ago. They left this problem for us.”

While the minister acknowledged that the current administration and law enforcement agencies have made tangible progress in reducing criminal activity, he admitted that decades of systemic neglect cannot be reversed overnight. Describing the nation’s crisis as a deeply rooted “disease”, Alexander stressed that the government is committed to ongoing, systematic treatment of the problem.

When pressed to address public anger over continued gang killings even as the country operates under a national state of emergency (SoE), Alexander clarified that officials never marketed the SoE as a one-size-fits-all solution to the crime problem. Instead, he framed the measure as just one critical tool in a broader, multi-pronged strategy designed to restore law and order to troubled communities.

Alexander explained that the emergency measures became necessary after the previous administration left the national crime-fighting infrastructure in a state of severe disrepair. He listed a litany of systemic failures inherited by the current government: crumbling physical infrastructure, critical shortages of police personnel, limited operational mobility, unreliable telecommunications systems, and minimal integration of modern crime-fighting technology. Rebuilding these broken systems to reach full operational capacity, he said, requires the government to secure significant new resources, and all components of the national security strategy must work in sync like a well-functioning clock. “A clock can’t work with parts missing so it’s my responsibility to fix it, and that’s what this Government is doing,” he noted.

Alexander pushed back on criticism that the current government has had enough time to turn the tide of crime, pointing out that the UNC has only held office for 12 months, compared to the PNM’s decade-long tenure. “In one year they wanted us to fix what they took their time to destroy and as it relates to crime what they fed and gave life to and encourage the gang culture,” he said.

Contrary to common public misunderstanding, Alexander said the SoE does not impose restrictions on civilian movement. Instead, it grants law enforcement expanded authority to collect intelligence and target high-risk criminal networks. He added that more suspects have already been detained under the current SoE than were held during the previous national emergency declaration.

Repeating his appeal for public cooperation, Alexander noted that multiple anonymous channels exist for community members to share tips about criminal activity. For residents too afraid of gang retaliation to come forward directly, he suggested passing information through contacts outside their communities or even through family and friends living abroad to ensure it reaches police safely.

While police have already received significant amounts of intelligence, Alexander explained that investigators require sufficient tangible evidence to bring strong cases against suspected criminals and secure convictions in court. He lamented the ruthless nature of modern gang violence, noting that gang members prioritize loyalty to their criminal organizations over the safety of their own families and loved ones. “Because you’re committing crimes and then going home to sleep. The other persons involved, other persons who are victims, who are targets, obviously they will target you and by extension, your family,” he said, highlighting the collateral harm that community-wide inaction allows to continue.