Guyana and Trinidad Sign a US-Led Hemispheric Pact at the United Nations

Two CARICOM states have put their names to a fifteen-nation statement that binds security to economics, including investment screening and critical-minerals supply chains.

Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago have signed a United States-convened statement on hemispheric cooperation at the United Nations, joining a fifteen-nation group in what Washington titled the Joint Statement on Defending Hemispheric Sovereignty. For two CARICOM members, it is a notable alignment with the United States at a moment of tension in regional waters.

The signatories are the United States alongside Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago. The statement sets three pillars: economic, security, and multilateral.

The economic pillar is the part to watch

For a business paper the economic commitments matter most. Members agree to deeper trade cooperation, to investment-screening mechanisms, and to safeguarding critical-minerals supply chains, alongside coordinated sanctions against designated narco-terrorist organizations. Guyana said the following day that it will move to sanction named groups. Investment screening in particular carries real consequences for small, capital-hungry states that court foreign money, and it is worth watching how Georgetown and Port of Spain apply it.

The timing is its own story. The signing came the same week Port of Spain reopened relations with Caracas, leaving Trinidad and Tobago straddling Washington and Venezuela in a single news cycle. Sovereignty, standing, and economic exposure for small states all sit inside one document.

Sources: U.S. State Department, Joint Statement on Defending Hemispheric Sovereignty (September 22, 2026); with corroboration from Al Jazeera, Demerara Waves and News Room Guyana. Details are as reported by those outlets.