PRESIDENT, Dr Irfaan Ali’s visit to the US comes at a time when the entire world is facing doom-and- gloom economic prospects from what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says will be the worst inflation rate in the past 50 years and when both the US and Britain face their worst inflation rates in the past four decades.

It is also a time when the US and Guyana both have to reassess their multilateral and bilateral ties at regional and global levels; review and renew priorities, face new challenges and grab new opportunities.

The US is the world’s biggest and Guyana the fastest-growing economy in the world and Guyana did not go to Washington cap in hand, but with an agenda for continuing mutual cooperation dating back to 1992, reaffirmed in 2020 and has flourished at all levels since then.

President Ali and his delegation are all also very much aware that Guyana has, now more than ever, to look to market its oil-and-gas resources globally, especially as nations big and small are today seeking, more than ever and by necessity, to align and realign their energy markets.

The US has its own economic headaches and this week the Federal Reserve Board raised interest rates (for a second time) by 0.075 per cent, with the effects of rising fuel and energy prices also affecting American pockets like everywhere else.

Guyana has seen the bellyaches experienced by other oil-producing countries that failed to wean themselves off total dependence on oil revenues, with diversification a primary objective and emphasis on agriculture and food security.

In that context, while Guyana and the US will definitely upgrade their shared economic and political relationships, it is also incumbent on the political leadership on both sides to better prepare for the more and new shocks that will continue coming in months ahead from the combined after-effects of Climate Change, COVID, Supply Chain and Ukraine War crises.

The interconnectedness of the world economy has again been highlighted by the effects of the current global political and economic crises on food and fuel prices.

The IMF and World Bank are actually warning that more than a dozen countries will go the Sri Lanka way, while poor nations most affected by the grain-supply crisis pray for earlier-than-later solutions.

Guyana has also been extending its ties with other nations in the global oil-and-gas industry, as well as developing nations willing to share experiences and develop new partnerships.

It is within this context that the President’s visit to the US must be measured and not on the basis of whether he met his US counterpart, who happened to have been in COVID isolation at the time.

There’s no reason but to expect that President Dr Ali’s delegation will return home with positive results from Washington. What will matter most, however, is where and how the US and Guyana walk together after the talking is over — which can only be forward, against the background of each country’s priorities in the new world unfolding everywhere every day.

The so-called “Weather Apocalypse” affecting Europe today is also being reflected elsewhere by worrying and worsening weather patterns – from floods to forest fires — in all corners of the globe, just as the world is preparing for the gathering global economic storm on the near horizon.

But Guyanese can rest reassured, as seen since August 2, 2020, that their present and future are undoubtedly in good and better hands in 2022 — with more oil revenues in the bag and continuing US support for preservation of valued democratic norms.