Modern Trinidad and Tobago maintains close relations with its Caribbean neighbours and major North American and European trading partners. As the most industrialized and second-largest country in the English-speaking Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago has taken a leading role in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and strongly supports CARICOM economic integration efforts. It also is active in the Summit of the Americas process and supports the establishment of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, lobbying other nations for seating the Secretariat in Port of Spain.
The term coalition of the willing refers to a temporary international partnership created for the purpose of achieving a particular objective, usually of military or political nature.
The president of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is the head of state of Trinidad and Tobago and the commander-in-chief of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force. The office was established when the country became a republic in 1976, before which the head of state was the Queen of Trinidad and Tobago, Elizabeth II. The last governor-general, Sir Ellis Clarke, was sworn in as the first president on 1 August 1976 under a transitional arrangement. He was formally chosen as president by an electoral college consisting of members of both houses of Parliament on 24 September 1976, which is now celebrated as Republic Day.
Sir Ellis Emmanuel Innocent Clarke was the first President of Trinidad and Tobago and the second and last Governor-General. He was one of the main architects of Trinidad and Tobago's 1962 Independence constitution.
James Victor Gbeho is a Ghanaian lawyer and diplomat who was President of the ECOWAS Commission from 2010 to 2012, to which position he was unanimously elected at the 37th Summit of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the 15 Member States.
Brian Joseph Donnelly was an American diplomat and politician. He was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts from 1979 to 1993, and was the United States Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago from 1994 to 1997.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados is a key Barbadian government agency responsible for regulating, maintaining, and developing Barbados's external relations and the nature of trading with foreign countries. The Ministry is also responsible for the country's representation at the United Nations and advises other Ministries and State authorities when the latter have dealings with foreign governments or institutions. It is based on Culloden Road, in the nation's capital Bridgetown.
His Excellency Mahinda Buddhadasa Samarasinghe is a former MP and the current Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the United States and Mexico and High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago.
Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Trinidad and Tobago were established on June 6, 1974. Russia is represented in Trinidad and Tobago through a non-resident embassy in Georgetown, Guyana.
Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago formally established diplomatic relations on Barbados' national date of independence, 30 November 1966. Barbados maintains non-resident representation to Port of Spain, and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago maintains non-resident representation to Bridgetown. Both countries are members of many shared organisations, including the Association of Caribbean States, the Commonwealth of Nations, CARICOM, CARIFORUM, and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
Foreign relations exist between Australia and Barbados. Neither country has a resident ambassador. The regional Australian High Commissioner to Barbados is accredited from Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. Barbados is represented in Australia through its High Commission in Ottawa, (Canada). Barbados maintains an honorary consul and a tourist office in Australia. Barbados and Australia established diplomatic relations on 7 January 1974. Both countries are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, and comprised as former parts of the British Empire.
Barbados v. Trinidad and Tobago was a 2006 arbitral case between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago in which the tribunal resolved the maritime border dispute between the two countries. The dispute was arbitrated before an arbitral tribunal constituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, in which the Permanent Court of Arbitration served as registry.
Elizabeth II was Queen of Trinidad and Tobago from the independence of Trinidad and Tobago on 31 August 1962 until the country became a republic on 1 August 1976. Her constitutional role as head of state was delegated to a governor-general, who acted on the advice of government ministers.
Philip Louis Ulric Cross was a Trinidadian jurist, diplomat and Royal Air Force (RAF) navigator, recognised as possibly the most decorated West Indian of World War II. He is credited with helping to prevent some two hundred bombers from being shot down in a raid over Germany in 1943. He subsequently studied law at London's Middle Temple, and went on to fulfil a distinguished international career as a jurist across Africa and within Trinidad and Tobago. He also served as a diplomat for Trinidad and Tobago to the United Kingdom.
Makeda Lizanna Kefima Antoine-Cambridge is the ambassador and permanent representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations.
Sergiy Olehovych Kyslytsya is a Ukrainian career diplomat, who serves as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine and Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations. He had previously served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (2014–2019).
Wilfred Andrew Rose (1922–2008) was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian diplomat and politician who served in the Federal Parliament of the West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962. A member of the People's National Movement, Rose also held several ambassadorial posts, most notably serving as Trinidad and Tobago's Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1964 until 1968.
Abiodun Richards Adejola is a Nigerian diplomat and Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. He assumed the office in February 2021, taking over from Tijjani Muhammad-Bande.
Dennis Francis is a diplomat from Trinidad and Tobago who has served as his country's permanent representative to the United Nations in New York since 2021. From 2023 to 2024 he was President of the United Nations General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session.
