SURINAME’s President Desi Bouterse is scheduled to pay a one-day official visit here on Monday, sources close to his office in Suriname told the Chronicle yesterday. In Georgetown, President Bouterse is expected to hold bilateral talks with President Bharrat Jagdeo, Suriname’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Lackin, reportedly told a post-cabinet press briefing in Paramaribo.
The visit, according to Lackin, is part of the new Suriname government’s foreign policy to step up regional integration efforts and enhance bilateral ties and cooperation with Guyana, Brazil, French-Guiana and Venezuela, all neighbouring countries.
The Chronicle has, despite efforts, been unable to receive confirmation on the visit from officials here in Guyana.
The expected September 6 visit would be President Bouterse’s first outside his country since being sworn in as President on August 12 last.
Immediately after securing the presidency, he had signalled his intention to forge closer bilateral ties with Brazil, France, Guyana, Venezuela, and China, the latter already deeply involved in logging and road building in Suriname.
“Suriname is looking forward to maintaining close relationships with all countries of the world, on the basis of mutual respect, mutual benefits and resolution of disputes through dialogue,” said Bouterse.
He added, “Suriname has a natural role to fulfill as a natural bridge between these two regions.”
Suriname, a former Dutch colony on the continent’s northeastern shoulder, and which won independence in 1975, is a gold and bauxite miner with a nascent oil industry.
Last week, Prime Minister Sam Hinds, during an interview with the state media and in response to a query, noted that both Guyana and Suriname have been adhering and conforming to a settlement of a maritime boundary dispute which was ruled in Guyana’s favour in 2007 by the United Nations Tribunal on the Law of the Sea.
The move to the tribunal was prompted by a 2000 incident which saw gunboats from Suriname forcibly removing a CGX oil rig that had been conducting oil exploration at a concession which the Guyana Government had awarded the company.
PM Hinds said that with President Bouterse emphasing the need to move beyond border talks to that of growth and development, he expects much more collaborative arrangements.
Bouterse is also due to travel on September 8 to Venezuela for an official visit, as well. There he will meet with his counterpart President Hugo Chavez with whom he is expected to discuss the strengthening of bilateral cooperation in the areas of energy, agriculture and fisheries, the Surinamese Foreign Affairs minister also told the press briefing.
Lackin further confirmed that the Suriname Head of State will travel to New York on September 21 to attend the 65th General Assembly of the United Nations. He is scheduled to address the UN on September 25.
During his visit to the UN, Bouterse will hold bilateral talks with the leaders of the delegations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and France.
It is also expected that he will meet several CARICOM leaders while he will receive the presidents of the IDB and World Bank for courtesy calls.