THE Sixth Round of European Union-Guyana Political Dialogue in the framework of Article 8 of the ACP-EU Cotonou Agreement was held on Monday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The previous round of the Political Dialogue took place in October, 2017. The Guyanese delegation was headed by Carl Greenidge, Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Audrey Jardine-Waddell, Director General; Mr. Troy Torrington, Director, Multilateral & Global Affairs Department and other Heads of Departments within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as representatives of key government ministries.

The EU’s side was headed by the Ambassador of the European Union H.E. Jernej Videti? and Ambassadors of the UK, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the objectives of the dialogue were to exchange information to foster mutual understanding and to facilitate the establishment of agreed priorities and shared agendas, in particular, by recognising the existing links between the different aspects of the relations between the parties and the various areas of cooperation as laid down in the Cotonou Agreement.

The two sides engaged in constructive, wide-ranging and frank discussions on bilateral, regional and international issues such as political developments and economic affairs; EU-Guyana and regional development cooperation; consular matters, governance and human rights issues including the death penalty, children’s right, women’s right, LGBTI issues, domestic abuse, prison conditions; trafficking in persons; security, climate change, and regional integration.

The two sides also expressed their continued commitment to an international order based on multilateralism and undertook to continue cooperation in this regard and welcomed the forthcoming initialling of the Voluntary Partnership on FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade) which will represent a milestone in cooperation on sustainable management of the forests. They also discussed the possible accession of Guyana to the International Energy Charter. They concluded by expressing their satisfaction on the usefulness of the dialogue in the context of EU-Guyanese relations, and have agreed to hold the next round of Political Dialogue in one year’s time.