Georgetown, GINA, January 9, 2016
President David Granger and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, during a session at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference in Malta
The year 2015 proved to be a challenging one for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Guyana was however, able to formulate its foreign policy position in a manner consistent with its interest.
The Venezuela threat
During the year, Venezuela’s challenge to Guyana’s territorial sovereignty heightened. This saw a concerted diplomatic effort to counter the neighbouring country's unjust moves of deliberately refusing to honour an international treaty, to which it is a party, and a decision which they accepted.
In pursuit of garnering support internationally, extensive work was done with bilateral and multilateral partners during 2015. Additionally, the United Nations Secretary General was called upon to assist in resolving the border controversy. As a result, a number of high - level meetings were held with representatives, both from Guyana and Venezuela which resulted on the embarking of a process which will see the Secretary General identifying an amicable means of going forward. These are preliminary measures as Guyana has stated its explicit position, that is, to resort to the International Court of Justice as a means of definitively bringing to an end the border controversy which has plagued Guyana for far too long.
Strengthening the Ministry
The year 2015 also saw efforts being made to strengthen the administrative arrangements within the Ministry. A number of persons who were qualified, and employed within the Ministry and who were not posted, such a situation was rectified This was done to ensure that each diplomat not only has the academic requirements, but also the professional experience needed to properly represent the ministry and by extension Guyana.
Changing of heads of missions
Another aspect of strengthening the ministry’s administrative arrangements saw the process to change the Heads of Mission including the Consuls Generals being initiated. The process firstly seeks the identification of possible appointees and Cabinet’s clearance on the candidates whilst simultaneously notifying the host country of the likely candidates and seeking clearance for them. This process can take up to three months just to vet, assuming that they are no added questions on the likely candidates.
The Consul General has community obligations to attend and participate in a number of events involving Guyana and interfacing with opinion forming elements within the community such as Universities, Research Institutes, as well as Guyanese and Caribbean Associations of various sorts.
Boosting skills
Additionally, efforts were made to supplement the existing skills within the ministry having a team of former ambassadors who would have worked in some of the key areas, to provide a litmus test for some of the policies that come out of the ministry. This will work in tandem with the restructuring of the ministry along with the revisiting of the number of areas assigned.
Further, the Foreign Services Institute was reactivated to deliver professional expertise to diplomats, as it will draw upon the available skills of former seasoned ambassadors.
International policy
Attention was also placed on the furtherance of the international policy which saw representation at the Caribbean Community, Commonwealth and other Heads of Government meetings which focus on international cooperation.
Guyanese diplomats also participated and contributed in a prominent way by either chairing or organising international meetings such as the Post - 2015 Economic Agenda where Ambassador George Talbot played a significant role.
The ministry worked towards resolving issues in MERCUSOR which is a regional integration movement outside of CARICOM, and pertaining to the World Trade Organisation and the trade obligations of Guyana. This saw Guyanese diplomats answering questions raised by trading partners as to the way forward regarding issues on trade cooperation .
Work in the context of the European Union (EU) and the African Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP) of States with whom Guyana collaborates and pursues a number of issues, which includes the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) arrangements, also continued during 2015.
The end of 2015 saw major international events which proved most important on the international sphere, the first being the WTO round which was an attempt to conclude the DOHA round by trying to put in place a framework that will see the removal of trade barriers. This framework would be removed in a way that will give priority to the requirements as outlined by developing countries.
December 2015 also saw the conference on the environment (COP 21) which was an area in which Secretary General Ban Ki Moon played a critical role, and in which Guyana has a very important interest. This saw Guyana contributing to the preparation and negotiations in Paris with other Ministries that have sectoral responsibility for the environment.
Achievements
As significant efforts were made in the multilateral setting, bilateral inputs were made into fashioning regional and international positions also.
The bilateral exercises take the form of cooperation agreements of various types, such as that which had existed with Norway. Work was done with the Norwegians to salvage the agreement between both countries to ensure that Guyana could be in a position to fully access the funds which Norway had committed to, and to ensure that such funds go to projects relevant to a Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
The EU had committed to Guyana a significant amount of financial resources, however those resources were blocked for political reasons because Guyana had failed to implement a number of things that it had committed itself to at a general political level and also at the level of the industry (sugar in particular). Therefore diplomatic work would have been done by the incumbent Coalition Government to resolve this issue. The fruit borne from such work saw Guyana meeting all the commitments that were agreed upon, which pertain to reviewing the status and performance of the sugar industry, as well as defining the next phase, and obligations to enact legislations in the areas of anti-money laundering and protection from terrorism and also in relation to procurement, all of which were put in place, save and except that which pertains to procurement.
It must be mentioned that the ministry worked quite assiduously with a number of the individual bilateral partners ranging from the United States- which has provided support in the area of strengthening of the Public Security Sector and the Justice System. Assistance has also been forthcoming from the United Kingdom as considerable discussions ensued in relation to the Security Sector project which was suspended under the EU framework under the previous administration. In this regard a number of decisions were taken in relation to matters which were suspended.
Bilateral relations with Japan improved as a proposal has been tabled from that country with regards addressing the flooding of Georgetown, thereby providing additional resources to Guyana to once and for all address the issue. As part of this mechanism, the coalition government will pull together all existing programmes which will see other bilateral partners contributing to address this matter. This means that the Ministry of Agriculture, its National Drainage and Irrigation Authority, the municipality, and central Georgetown along with other key stakeholders will be brought within one framework, and from that coherent state address the situation.
Programmes such as these are evidence that the administration merely did not have meetings or exchanges with its international partners, but rather concrete proposals for enhancing the situation of the country. Another example includes the case of Cuba where a project was agreed upon to train those working with persons that are physically challenged in a number of key areas. Additionally, coming out of COP 21, a team from Norway will shortly visit Guyana with the intention of first, trying to pull together the different threads of cooperation that did not work in 2015 as regards matters of the environment.
In the case of the EU, and the assistance for addressing security issues, during the first quarter of 2016, works will be done under the project. Meanwhile in the case of the project for drainage of Georgetown- funded by Japan, the physical work is the last stage, as currently, a plan has to be devised, and integrated into the existing ones before construction commences. Japanese input into this project is in the vicinity of US$15M; however it forms part of a wider project to transform the country’s infrastructure.
Taken into account all that was done and accomplished for 2015 , it indicates that a platform has well been laid for the improvement of the quality of representation Guyana receives internationally, as ranks who serve the varying missions will be better equipped to adequately address challenges they face.
This year will therefore see increased participation in conferences and diplomatic missions being built on the foundation that was laid during 2015.