– India’s President says in Independence Day message

PRESIDENT of India, Droupadi Murmu, on Friday, in her Independence Day greetings to the people of Guyana, the government and President Dr. Irfaan Ali, said that the recent visit made by local officials to India provided new momentum in Guyana-India relations.

“The recent visit of Your Excellency to India and other high-level engagements have provided a renewed momentum to India-Guyana relations. I am confident that the deep bonds of friendship between our two countries will be further strengthened and diversified,” President Murmu stated.

President Ali visited India for seven days in January 2023. Upon returning, he said that working groups had been established and would have begun work immediately to push the collaborative agenda in several areas discussed during the trip.

“We have already written to the Government of India outlining the working group, the names that we are proposing to be part of that working group following the OAS model with the US and CARICOM,” he said.

President Ali also noted India’s keen interest in investing and working with Guyana in several areas, namely agriculture, technology, security and even on the oil and gas front.

During the seven days, he said he met with the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and they discussed cooperation in several areas.

Dr. Ali related that the Prime Minister had shown an interest in visiting Guyana this year to fast-track a lot of the planning in areas they have identified for collaboration.

In addition to this, President Ali said that, in a meeting with Prime Minister Modi, they discussed the shared vision and commitment to various global topics, which include climate change, food security, energy security, human resource development and building out a platform through which they can create a better global environment that supports peace and development.

He added that in relation to agriculture and food production, that stood as a strong pillar underpinning discussion, as this is a key element of Guyana’s development aspiration and a key element of the leadership that the country is providing in the region.

“There was tremendous interest in having close collaboration between the two governments on research and development, technology transfer, building out of our agri-food system, the ecosystem surrounding our food production and agriculture, and enhancing the productivity of our agricultural sector,” President Ali said.

Further, the ongoing transformation of Guyana’s healthcare system was also discussed as ways in which India can collaborate with local authorities here, especially as the government intends to push the use of telemedicine here.

Those collaborations would also see training and advancement of the human-resource pool, such as the nurses and laboratory technicians, among others.

Meanwhile, he mentioned that discussions were also held in relation to the security and defence sector.
India, Dr. Ali related, has a very strong investment in defence technology and, as such, discussions surrounded this along with the training of Guyanese in this field.

He said that the two countries could collaborate in this regard to further the modernisation of the Guyana Defence Force and the Guyana Police Force in terms of equipment transformation to have a defence capability that functions on an improved technological platform.