Over the past several decades, there has been a renewed momentum in the outreach that the Government of India has undertaken with respect to strengthening relations with Guyana and other Caribbean countries. Multiple high-ranking officials have paid visits to the Caribbean region and several leaders from the region, including all Guyanese Presidents going back to Forbes Burnham, except Desmond Hoyte and Mrs. Janet Jagan, have visited India. All of the visits were aimed at boosting bilateral and/or regional ties with India. The relationship with Guyana has been on an upward tick with recent visits by trade and investment delegations from India.

The latest political uptick is the visit by Guyana’s Minister of External Affairs, Hon. Hugh Todd to New Delhi where he held talks with India’s External Affairs Minister, Dr. Subramaniam Jaishankar; Minister Todd also met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, signalling the importance given to the relationship by the Indian Government. This is a reflection of the significance placed by India on the relationship with Guyana and the Caribbean nations. The importance of relations with Guyana is further reflected in the amount of time spent by and the posturing of Minister Jaishankar in holding lengthy bi-lateral discussions.

The aim behind Todd’s visit is to further the relations between the two longtime allies, shoring up bilateral engagements and partnership agreements already in place or in progress and entering into new ones.

Minister Todd praised India for the developmental assistance rendered to Guyana since independence. India has provided huge amounts of financing and other forms of aid to Guyana since independence in 1966 totalling billions in American dollars.

Even during the pandemic, India was kind towards Guyana and the developing nations. During the widespread gloom of the COVID-19 pandemic, India kept almost all its supply lines to other countries open thereby ensuring that critical medical equipment, medicines and other supplies could reach Guyana, Latin America, the Caribbean, and other developing nations; even wealthy countries like Canada, USA, UK, and several others in Europe were beneficiaries of India’s generosity. The wrath of a devastating wave of the virus that took many lives in India in April/May 2021 did not stop India from helping Guyana and other countries. Under India’s landmark ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative that started in mid-2020, India gifted hundreds of tonnes of medical supplies to poor countries including Guyana. This further serve to prove the significance that India has been attaching to its relations with Guyana and Caribbean nations.

In the course of Todd’s visit, the Foreign Ministers discussed a plethora of issues that were bilateral, regional as well as global in nature. These included, but were not limited to developmental partnerships, healthcare services, education, culture, agriculture, trade, commerce, technology transfer, Informational Technology, finance, and other economic considerations and common issues of interest. Guyana is already the beneficiary of concessional lines of credit, grants, loans, thousands of scholarships and developing other capacity-building initiatives with Guyana.

The India-Guyana relationship is firmly rooted in deep historical, political, people-to-people, and cultural ties. Even before Guyana attained Independence from the colonial rule of Britain in May 1966, prominent leaders of the national movement in India would issue calls of support for the anti-colonial liberation struggle in Guyana and the Caribbean region that were taking place since the 1950s. And several Indian Guyanese figures were supportive of India’s freedom struggle since the early 1900s.

Despite the deepened ties with India, spanning across the seven decades since India’s independence, there is room for further expansion, especially now that Guyana is transitioning into a petroleum energy economy. India, which has reputable petroleum engineering institutes, can provide training to Guyanese to work in and manage the emerging oil and gas sector. Government should request such assistance; India is sure to respond positively. Guyana should also seek to bolster co-operation in emerging sectors such as health, tourism, new and renewable energy, high-yield farm production, technology transfer, oil refinery, agro-processing, and non-traditional or ayurvedic medicine, among others.
It is hoped that the Todd’s visit to India will lead to a boost in the growing trade and investment relations between India and Guyana.