–Speaker of India’s Lower House says

SPEAKER of India’s Lower House, or Lok Sabha, as it is referred to there, Om Birla, has said that Guyana and India could explore the possibility of working together to strengthen their democracies.

Mr Birla pitched this idea during an engagement with Guyana’s Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir, who, along with a team of local officials, represented Guyana at the Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, held in Austria.

The two Speakers exchanged pleasantries and discussed the close ties between Guyana and India.

According to the High Commission of India, India’s relations with Guyana are “warm and cordial” with a high degree of understanding. The interaction is structured through periodic joint commissions, foreign office consultations, cultural exchange programmes and ITEC, among other things.

With India being considered a model democracy which has had 17 general elections and 300 assembly elections, Birla believes that India and Guyana could work together to strengthen their democracies. He also said that the people of the two nations could learn from each other, both culturally and economically.

Speaker Nadir agreed with Birla and said that people from both countries could benefit economically and culturally once there is access to opportunities.

Both Speakers pledged to continue to have dialogue on strengthening the institution of Parliament in the two countries with exchange programmes to learn from each other’s best practices, and to maintain the strong bond shared over the years.

Nadir also spoke of the close relationship between Guyana and India, highlighting that India is one of Guyana’s largest donors.