AN AGREEMENT to strengthen the bilateral legal framework for interaction between law enforcement agencies in Guyana and Russia was among key issues discussed when the Russian Ambassador to Guyana Nikolay Smirnov met the Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan on Monday. Coordinator of the Task Force on Narcotic Drugs and Illicit Weapons, Major General (Retired) Michael Atherly was also present during the high level meeting.
When finalized, the cooperation agreement will be signed between the Ministry of Interior of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Public Security of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
An earlier agreement on cooperation between the Federal Service of the Russian Federation for Narcotics Traffic Control and the Home Affairs Ministry (now Public Security Ministry) signed in Havana in February 2012 was also considered to establish progress made in this regard.
The Russian side has expressed its willingness to continue providing courses for Guyanese police during the present year 2016.
“One Police Sergeant has recently been admitted to the “Incident Site Inspection Finger-Printing Identification Programme” to be held in Moscow University of the Ministry of Interior of Russia from March 28 – April 26, 2016,” a joint statement stated.
It said too that the recent abolishment of the visa requirement between the two countries now facilitates easy travel of Guyanese policemen to Russia.
“The Russian Government has been facilitating training for Guyanese policemen over several years and intends to extend such training to programmers being done at the Regional Counter Drug Law-Enforcement Training Centre in Managua and the Russian-Cuban Fire and Rescue Training Center in Havana.”
The training will strengthen the capacity of participants to fight illicit drug traffic and prevent, cope and recover from natural disasters, fires and other emergencies.