India’s relation with Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) has been pivotal in building India’s heft and hoist in the Caribbean. Steel tycoon L N Mittal made one his earliest global acquisitions in T&T when he bought the Point Lisas plant. That perhaps forged Indian business relations with this twin Caribbean island nation like nothing before.

This time we have a concise interview with the Indian High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, H.E. Arun Kumar Sahu. We’ve in the past interviewed his predecessors like Ambassador Malay Mishra (on our Global Advisory Board) and Ambassador Gauri Shankar Gupta, more than once, and interacted with Ambassador J.S. Sapra. The former Maharaja of Jodhpur Gaj Singh also served as India’s High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago in the 1970s.

High Commissioner Sahu talks us through many activities of the Mission including the role cultural engagement has played in developing Indo-Trinbagonian relations. With 42 percent of the nation’s population of East Indian ancestry, Indian music, dance, Bollywood films, among others, constitute an integral part of the local cultural heritage. Sports too has played a key role in cementing ties, especially cricket where many of the stars with East Indian origin in the West Indian cricket team over the years have come from T&T. He also talks about the presence of people of East Indian descent in Grenada, Dominica and Montserrat.