MINISTER of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, in apprising Guyanese on foreign policy matters, detailed that Guyana is looking at non-traditional partners, even while consolidating relationships with traditional ones. Appearing on “Political Scope” on the National Communications Network (NCN) Inc., last Friday, the Minister explained that Guyana was forging ahead, working with countries such as Turkey, recalling the CARICOM/Turkey meeting last year. In  a more direct manner at the bi-lateral level, Guyana has had several visits from various teams from the Turkish Government; these are already bearing fruit as some small projects have been approved by Turkey, in some  key areas such agriculture and health.

OUTREACH DOWN SOUTH
Minister Rodrigues-Birkett also mentioned that association with Chile will unfold as the Chileans will be establishing an embassy here in Guyana, by the end of this year. She stated that was because of “our outreach down south as well… we now have an embassy in Kuwait and so we are doing some work in that Region as well … so yes, we have been increasing our number of partners in the International Community.”
Pertaining to the effects of this kind of amalgamation, the Minister emphasised the importance of establishing relations, with so many countries, as almost natural, since “it is an interconnecting world … it’s becoming interconnected with the technology that we have today, and we also see that diversification of power as we have many emerging economies that are doing very well and certainly those countries are looking for new partners…”
Albeit, this kind of intermingling can be sought after and even be actualised, the Minister did not withhold her caution as “there will be times when we will not share the same position and there will be other times when we converge with respect to our positions … so it’s important for us to have relations with all the countries in the world.”
Minister Rodrigues-Birkett highlighted that China is one of Guyana’s consistent partners. She recalled that Guyana was one of the first countries in the English-speaking Caribbean to establish diplomatic relations with China, and she “thinks that they hold that fact very dearly and we also have been working very closely with China in good times and in bad times.”
She noted that China is the second largest economy in the world, with the largest foreign reserves, a major force with which to reckon. The Minister also said that this power house and close ally of Guyana has been reaching out to the Caribbean and the Latin American countries, and so the China/CELAC (The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) must be lauded.
She cited the first China/CELAC forum where out of that meeting came what is deemed a ‘cooperation plan’ that included in it some $35B that can certainly come to the Latin America and Caribbean Region. The details are that $5B of that is for cooperation; $10B for concessionary financing; and another $20B for infrastructure projects.
This kind of union, she suggested, is “quite a major achievement … of course the implementation now is what will be important and so small countries like Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean … we have to be ready to put forward our projects under that initiative.”

UNASUR

Continuing on the theme of integration, Minister Rodrigues-Birkett referred to the recent visit to Guyana by the UNASUR (Union of South American Nations) Secretary General, former President of Colombia, Dr. Ernesto Samper.
He has been visiting all of the countries in UNASUR to discuss matters concerning the organisation but the Minister zeroed in on Guyana’s priorities. She informed that a number of issues have been outlined, including inter-connectiveness of South America.
“I’m speaking about physical interconnection and already he has identified seven projects within the UNASUR mechanism, two of them include Guyana specifically, which would be the linking of Guyana, Brazil, Suriname, and then among Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname.”
This, she said, leads directly to the Corentyne Bridge, involving Guyana and Suriname. She added that due to the “amount of money China has earmarked with cooperation from CELAC, Suriname has taken advantage of that as well. There has been a submission for the Corentyne Bridge, which would benefit the two countries.
It should be noted that Guyana is a member of UNASUR’s twelve South American countries, and has been consistently working to strengthen relations within the organisation’s framework, as well as bilaterally with the countries in UNASUR. This is why Guyana established an Argentine embassy here. It was pointed out too that very strategic is Guyana’s position between the Caribbean and South America. So, for the Minister, “it is appropriate that we have the CARICOM Secretariat here in Guyana … so that is an added advantage.”
Chile is in fact one of the countries in South America; poised to achieve Developed Country status very soon, because of what they have been able to achieve, she said, “and so we certainly have a lot to learn from Chile. We are also working with Chile in the CARICOM context,” she noted.
 NO FEARS
The Minster clarified that comments about and concerns of neglect of partnerships with long term partners are totally unfounded. She said that the United States of America remains Guyana’s largest trading partner in the world and so it is very important for that relationship to be preserved and strengthened. Also she highlighted that Guyana has the largest Diaspora population in the US as well, “so we have worked very hard to maintain our relationship, we are also working closely together on security matters, and in fact “I would think that our security portfolio, in terms of projects, is the largest one within the US Caribbean Basin security initiative.”
The Minister added that Guyana is also working with the US on a number of other initiatives, such as the issue of Trafficking in Persons, and even though “we do not always agree on some of the pronouncements, we are working very closely on that matter with the United States.” (GINA)