IT IS A well-founded axiom that the conduct of a country’s foreign policy is predicated upon its domestic policy. This means that the particular State has the right to establish and nurture ties with any state in a mutually respectful and cordial manner for its optimal social and economic benefits.
The thrust of Guyana’s domestic development programme can be discerned mainly as one of foreign direct investment, whether via the Diaspora or otherwise, coupled with joint venture arrangements.
Thus President Jagdeo’s trips to all parts of the globe reflect a foreign policy that is in keeping with this particular focus. There have been numerous critics of his foreign trips, accusing him of establishing ties with untraditional friends. Those detractors must know that there is no foreign policy rule that determines with which state another must forge ties. This is an exclusive question of sovereignty.
Have these naysayers taken into consideration that the economic assistance that used to be forthcoming from the traditional quarters  has begun to lessen because of those donors’ changed priorities? Aid is still being received, but in terms of the grander state development projects, newer sources of economic aid have to be found. Even the tiny island-states of CARICOM understand such a changing international economic landscape, hence their linkages with non-traditional friends.
Therefore the imminent, reciprocal visit of the Kuwaiti Prime Minister must be seen as a vindication of this country’s foreign policy direction, and His Excellency’s fulfillment of this plan.
The critics would have noted an important and beneficial facility of US$10M, according to one of the dailies, from Kuwait, towards developing a 10,000 house lot community on the East Bank Demerara, apart from  the proposed signing of a Double Taxation Agreement between the two states.
Guyana and its people are benefitting from a wise foreign policy.