PRESIDENT, Dr. Irfaan Ali and US Vice President, Kamala Harris, on Wednesday, reaffirmed the working relationship between the two countries via a telephone call, according to a White House statement.

President Ali is in the US capital city leading a high level delegation including Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo and Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Minister Hugh Todd.

During the phone conversation, the two senior government officials spoke on food security, energy security, and access to development financing.

This discussion comes on the heels of the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing efforts to strengthen partnerships with Caribbean nations, and to underscore the continued importance the United States places on the US-Guyana relationship, the White House statement on the phone call said.

In April, VP Harris convened a virtual meeting with Caribbean leaders, which was followed by a June meeting at the Ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles which included US President, Joe Biden. Several CARICOM leaders were present for that in-person meeting.

The White House said VP Harris and President Ali reviewed the progress made since these engagements, including the work of three short-term joint U.S.-Caribbean committees launched at the Americas Summit.

Those committees focused on concrete, near-term solutions for food security, energy security, and access to development financing.

“The Vice President welcomed progress made on these three areas, and reiterated the interest of the United States in addressing the unique vulnerabilities and urgent economic challenges facing Caribbean nations,” the release said.

President Ali was praised for his leadership in agricultural development in the Caribbean.

The Vice President and President Ali also discussed the recent commitment of the United States to provide $28 million for food security assistance to Caribbean nations and other ways the United States can support the Caribbean in this area.

The Vice President and President Ali discussed the importance of a sustainable energy future.

As part of that, the release continued, they discussed the implementation of the US-Caribbean Partnership to Address the Climate Crisis 2030 (PACC 2030), which VP Harris launched in June to facilitate clean energy infrastructure development and strengthen climate resiliency in the Caribbean.

The two leaders also spoke on furthering PACC 2030’s energy infrastructure development timeline by incorporating these lines of effort into the work of the US-Caribbean short-term energy and finance committees, the White House noted.

“The Vice President noted that she looked forward to continuing her collaboration with President Ali in promoting inclusive democracy, economic development, and security for all Guyanese, and underscored the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to strengthening US partnerships with the Caribbean,” the release added.

Meanwhile President Ali, during an interview with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) which was aired through multiple social media accounts, said that while Guyana is already providing leadership in many aspects, his aim is to strengthen shared values with other key government stakeholders as well as the private sector.

In strengthening these said values, the President said robust conversations are required.

“The first thing we have to do to advance any relationship is to have conversation to understand each other to share our perspective on things; it may be different, but unless we share it, we cannot understand the commonality,” President Ali said.

He disclosed that the conversation with VP Harris was beneficial to the United States, Guyana and the CARICOM region at large.

On Tuesday, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Guyana has been a very strong partner for the United States and is, in many ways, a global leader.

The two countries, he added, will continue to advance discussions and collaboration in areas of co-operation.

“We’re working together in our region and beyond to try to find solutions to urgent challenges, to include climate, to include food security, energy security.

“We’re working on issues together, and I think coming out of the Summit of the Americas in particular, there is a lot more energy in those efforts, including some things that we’re working on very actively right now that I know we’ll be sharing in the weeks ahead,” Blinken added.

The United States, he emphasised, is “very eager to continue to deepen and strengthen the partnership,” which will also redound to the benefit of the region given the fact that Georgetown, the country’s capital, is also the seat of CARICOM.