New Delhi: Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar on Friday strongly defended the two-week duration of her visit here saying she would not have been to India if there was no trade and business involved.
"Yes, some of us are of Indian origin and we were happy to be in the country from where our forefathers came from. But that was just a part of the visit," she said in a video- conference with journalists here and in Port-of-Spain.
"If there was no trade or business conversation or partnership I would not have been here in my capacity as prime minister," she said.
The Caribbean media wanted to know the tangible benefits of her two-week ling visit to India and the expenses incurred by the Trinidad and Tobago exchequer. Describing her visit as a "resounding success", Bissessar listed out a number of agreements signed during the visit and the help India has promised to extend to the IT sector in the Caribbean nation.
Speaking of the tangible results, she said that agriculture experts would be visiting Trinidad and Tobago to resuscitate the coconut industry which has been struggling due to red palm mite disease. On the expenses incurred on the visit, Bissessar said that the official delegation was hosted by the government of India while the business delegation paid for their expenses. She described as "a mind-boggling experience" her visit to her ancestral village Bhelupur in Bihar`s Buxar district. PTI