LOGISTICAL issues delayed Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s arrival at the opening of the 51st Regular Meeting of the Conference of Caricom Heads of Government in St Lucia yesterday, causing her to miss the traditional line-up of regional leaders on stage.This according to Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Nicholas Morris. He told the Express, however, via WhatsApp message from St Lucia that she arrived before St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister and immediate former Caricom chairman Dr Terrance Drew delivered his address at the opening ceremony.Persad-Bissessar later posted photographs on her social media pages showing her attending the meeting alongside members of the Trinidad and Tobago delegation.During her absence from Trinidad and Tobago, the Minister of Works and Infrastructure Jearlean John will again act as Prime Minister.The Prime Minister departed Trinidad and Tobago yesterday with a delegation that included Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Sean Sobers, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Nicholas Morris, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Darrell Allahar, and Head of the Foreign Service Randall Karim.Last week, Persad-Bissessar also reaffirmed that Trinidad and Tobago maintains its objection to the reappointment of Caricom Secretary-General Dr Carla Barnett. The Persad-Bissessar administration has previously stated that it will not recognise Barnett after the expiry of her current term in August.The Prime Minister previously told the Express that her government maintains the process used to secure Barnett’s reappointment was inconsistent with the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and Caricom’s established governance procedures.Speaking at the opening ceremony on Sunday evening, Caricom Secretary General Dr Carla Barnett said regional leaders would focus on advancing the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), including implementing full free movement among four member states from October 2025, while continuing efforts to strengthen food security, climate resilience and governance support for Haiti.Barnett also announced that Martinique had joined the meeting as an associate member, while French Guiana was expected to formally sign its accession agreement during the summit.At the Fiftieth (50th) Regular Meeting of the Conference of Caricom Heads of Government in St Kitts and Nevis in February, Persad-Bissessar used her speech to criticise the Caricom Secretariat for its silence in 2022 when Trinidad and Tobago national Brent Thomas was “kidnapped” from Barbados, describing the matter as deeply “unsettling”.As then-opposition leader, the Prime Minister said she wrote to the Caricom Secretariat seeking answers but, to date, has received no response. Barnett was seated in the audience when Persad-Bissessar made her remarks.The Prime Minister had also clashed with the regional body last year with her vocal support of the US lethal strikes on alleged narco-traffickers in the Caribbean while Caricom reaffirmed the principle of maintaining the region as a Zone of Peace. She also criticised Caricom as an “unreliable partner” over its collective silence when the former Maduro administration threatened T&T.