Trinidad & Tobago's new government is on a global charm offensive. Since taking office, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has addressed a Caricom heads of government meeting in Jamaica, a Commonwealth Business Council in London and the UN General Assembly in New York.

In the process, she has cemented ties with the country's two key bilateral partners – the UK and US – and with the most important multilateral bodies. Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Surujrattan Rambachan says she has a vital role to play in developing the country's position on the world stage.

"A new brand of Trinidad & Tobago will be built around her," he says. "We had to make these trips to assure the world that we are ready to do business and that there is a new attitude to relationships with the world."

For a small country like Trinidad & Tobago, such diplomacy is vital to ensure access to international markets – perhaps the most important part of its foreign policy.

"We want to engage in a 'value for money' diplomacy in which we look at not just gaining benefit but also giving benefit," says Rambachan. "We want to create a more facilitative environment for people coming to do business here, to make it easier."

There is much that can be done. While the UK will remain a vital market, there is also progress to be made to enhance political and economic relationships with countries throughout the developing world.

"We feel that we have not exploited the opportunities as we should have with Latin America," he says. "Instead of looking north, we have to now look south and expand our relationship with the Caribbean and Central America."

Even here, the historic ties with the UK provide a useful platform through the Commonwealth. Trinidad & Tobago is currently Chair-in-Office of the organisation, which has 11 other members in the region. It is through such bodies that Trinidad & Tobago can often make the biggest impact. It can also take advantage of its diaspora as the basis for a healthy export market.

For all the domestic changes to the country's political landscape, however, some aspects of foreign policy stay the same.

"Trinidad and Tobago's posture in relation to the Caribbean Community remains unchanged," Persad-Bissessar told the CARICOM meeting in July 2010. "My government stands committed to the ideals of widening and deepening of the regional integration process."

T&T's soft power in the Caribbean

Perhaps the most important relationship for the country is with its neighbours in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Trinidad & Tobago has played a leading role in the organisation ever since it suggested establishing it in the 1960s and Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Surujrattan Rambachan says that now is the time to build it up even more. "We are going to push for deeper regional integration, for a common voice and a common position in many matters," he says. "We in the Caribbean region have to make our voices heard."