We have an interview with Mr Winston Dookeran, Foreign Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, on the cover. This is my second interview with Mr Dookeran, the first one had taken place in April 2010, just before Trinidad and Tobago was going in for the national elections. It may be recalled that Mr Dookeran had floated his political party—Congress of The People—in 2006 and had contested the 2007 national polls on his own. At the time his fledgling party had contested all 41 Parliamentary seats but could not win any. Significantly, though, it managed to get 23 per cent of the vote share. In 2010 when his country went to the polls again, the COP joined the coalition led by the UNC’s Kamala Persad-Bissessar, TnT’s present day Prime Minister. In the interview Mr Dookeran takes us through his political journey during the last five years in which he has seen several changes in his country, and the Caribbean region as a whole.

Also, Assistant Editor Misha Singh interviewed the Ambassador of the Czech Republic in India, H.E. Miloslav Stasek and discussed several possibilities of increasing trade and commerce between his country and India.

Contributing Editor Mr Kul Bhushan has written on the euphoria generated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Canada while GOPIO International President Mr Ashook Ramsaran has a piece titled “Beyond the Hesperus and the Whitby” presented at the Indian Arrival Day Commemoration in Guyana on May 5. We have excerpts from that presentation.

There are several more stories in this packed edition.

Happy reading.

(sayantanc@gmail.com)