-for World Water Conference

PRESIDENT David Granger is in Brazil attending the 8th World Water Forum which is being hosted in that country’s capital, Brasilia.

The President departed Guyana Sunday on the invitation of the President of Brazil Michel Temer and will participate in the official opening ceremony set for today, March 19.
The World Water Forum is the world’s biggest water-related event and is organised by the World Water Council. Its mission is “to promote awareness, build political commitment and trigger action on critical water issues at all levels, to facilitate the efficient conservation, protection, development, planning, management and use of water in all its dimensions on an environmentally sustainable basis for the benefit of all life”.

President Granger is scheduled to return to Guyana on March 20. This is the President’s second state visit to Brazil in recent months.

While in Brazil last December, he gave the assurance that relations between Guyana and Brazil could only get stronger. He had used the occasion to remind citizens on both sides of the border that Brazil has been a reliable partner in the defence of Guyana’s territorial integrity. The country has always maintained its support for Guyana in the Guyana/Venezuela border controversy.

Approximately two months after the countries engaged in high-level talks here to bolster defence cooperation, with Guyana emphasising the need for greater emphasis on surveillance and its involvement in the Amazon Surveillance System.
Joined by several ministers of government and members of the Defence Board, President Granger met with Brazil’s Minister of Defence Raul Jungmann Pinto, along with a high-level delegation which included Brazil’s Minister of Justice Torquato Lorena Jardim.

The bilateral engagement, which was hosted at State House, saw a commitment by both countries to review the September 2012 Joint Communiqué, which followed the official visit to Guyana by Ambassador Celso Amorim, then Minister of Defence of Brazil.
The review is intended to update the agreements in that document and bring them in line with present-day realities, as well as to deepen defence cooperation.