The US president remarked that countries which voted at the UN against the US are not the US’s friends and would be “treated accordingly”

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Feb. 1, 2018– Today, at the launch of the United Democratic Party (UDP) Belize City Council manifesto, reporters asked Prime Minister Dean Barrow to comment on US President Donald Trump’s remarks during his State of the Union address to the US Congress on Tuesday about helping friends of the US and treating other nations according to their vote in the UN and other similar decisions they might have made.

“I am not particularly worried,” Barrow replied, “I think, we are friends with the United States.”

Barrow added, “And certainly it is a friendship that can and will survive that particular vote at the UN. So it is not something that I am especially concerned about.”

PM Barrow was asked if he was worried that the US Congress would be stingier with the disbursement of the CARSI (Central American Regional Security Initiative) funds which benefit both Belize and Guatemala, and from which Belize benefits through the security apparatus it is able to receive.

Barrow replied, “In terms of CARSI, it is not charity from the US. It is a matter of pursuing their strategic interest, and those interests have not changed, and cannot change in terms of the circumstances in the region. So, again I am not worried.”