{"id":262871,"date":"2026-01-02T06:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=262871"},"modified":"2026-01-02T08:24:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T12:24:04","slug":"u-s-caricom-relations-year-in-review-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/u-s-caricom-relations-year-in-review-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S.-CARICOM Relations: Year in Review (2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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U.S.-CARICOM Relations: Year in Review (2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Dr. Nand C. Bardouille<\/strong><\/p>

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As the then-outgoing Caribbean Community (CARICOM)<\/a> Chair’s end of year message made clear<\/a>, “[t]his year [i.e. 2025], CARICOM made meaningful progress in advancing regional integration and economic growth.”<\/p>

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But despite this progress, nearly a year into Donald Trump’s second term as U.S. President, harsh foreign policy realities have set in. This became apparent in the early months of Trump 2.0, which engendered uncertainty regarding U.S. relations with virtually all of the bloc’s 14<\/a> sovereign member states.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from that development, and in the time since, Trinidad and Tobago has grabbed the headlines vis-\u00e0-vis U.S.-CARICOM relations<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>

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There is, to be sure, a major shift underway regarding Trinidad and Tobago’s relations with the U.S., dealing a blow to this regional grouping’s unity in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the face of prevailing Trump 2.0 foreign policy dynamics, within which the U.S. military’s recent surge into the Caribbean looms large, Trinidad and Tobago is not the only CARICOM member state to reconsider its associated foreign policy positioning. <\/p>

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Offering an account that draws on my International Relations disciplinary background, I address this shift in what to date is a series of five published articles. <\/p>

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Listed below (in reverse chronological order), they assess that the shift in question constitutes a significant test for the bloc’s unity in respect of Trump 2.0:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. ‘The Price of CARICOM Countries\u2019 Competing Foreign Policy Dispositions’. <\/a> Dominica News Online<\/em> (December 30, 2025).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. ‘A Breach within CARICOM Widens’.<\/a> Trinidad and Tobago Guardian<\/em> (December 26 & 27, 2025 \u2013 Parts I & II).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. ‘Trump\u2019s Venezuelan Gambit Triggers Fears of Caribbean Costs’.<\/a> Trinidad and Tobago Guardian<\/em> (December 18, 2025).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. ‘As Trump 2.0 Takes Root, CARICOM Faces Foreign Policy Quandary’.<\/a> Trinidad and Tobago Guardian<\/em> (December 11, 2025).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. ‘The Perils of the Trump-Maduro Showdown for CARICOM’.<\/a> Trinidad and Tobago Guardian<\/em> (November 20, 2025).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Not for the first time in their post-independence history, CARICOM member states are mired in a foreign policy-related trajectory in which national and regional interests are pulling in opposite directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The above listed articles call attention to this challenge, which stacks on to early foreign policy setbacks that CARICOM member states began to grapple with just months into Trump’s second term in office.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the foreign policy realm, then, this is the second of two principal Washington-facing stories that shaped CARICOM in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the following published analyses, authored early in 2025, I examine that angle:<\/p>\n\n\n\n