Jaishankar concludes Trinidad visit; highlights cultural links, development partnerships

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar highlighted India's close cultural and historical ties with Trinidad and Tobago as he concluded his visit to the Caribbean nation with a series of engagements focused on diaspora outreach and development cooperation. Jaishankar on Saturday interacted with members of the Indian community and underlined the ''special bonds'' shared with the Girmitya community, descendants of Indian indentured labourers who had migrated to the Caribbean during the colonial era. ''Concluded my visit with an interaction with the Indian community. Underlined the special bonds with the Girmitya community and discussed nurturing it further,'' he said in a social media post. Jaishankar said India is a ''reliable and trusted partner'', responsive to the needs and aspirations of Trinidad and Tobago. According to the website of the Indian High Commission here, approximately 143,000 indentured workers from the Indian subcontinent migrated to Trinidad between 1845 and 1917. A vast majority of these Indian emigrants came from northern India and Bihar. The descendants of those indentured workers, now in their fifth or sixth generation, form nearly 40-45 per cent of the total population of 1.36 million (as of 2024), constituting an integral part of the country's economic, political, and social fabric, it states. Jaishankar had arrived in Port of Spain from Paramaribo on Friday on the concluding leg of his three-nation tour of Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago, aimed at deepening India's engagement with the Caribbean nations. Earlier on Saturday, Jaishankar visited the Dattatreya Mandir, where he offered prayers for the well-being of the people and for stronger India-Trinidad and Tobago relations. The Dattatreya Mandir is a prominent Hindu temple in central Trinidad known for housing an 85-foot statue of Lord Hanuman. In another post on X, the minister described his interaction with the Indo-Trinbagonian community in South Trinidad as a ''home away from home''. ''A real pleasure to be among the Indo-Trinbagonian community in South Trinidad. The kinship was expressed in so many ways. And the affection, in even more,'' he said, while thanking Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for the experience. Jaishankar also launched a permanent prosthetics centre in Penal town jointly with Persad-Bissessar, following the success of India's Jaipur Foot camp in the country that benefited over 800 persons with disabilities. The Jaipur Foot is a low-cost prosthetic limb initiative that has helped thousands of differently-abled people across the world regain mobility. Describing the prosthetics centre as a ''people-centric project'', Jaishankar, in a social media post, said it is a ''gift of mobility and dignity for Trinidad and the wider CARICOM (Caribbean Community and Common Market) region.''

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