PM Modi’s visit to further strengthen bi-lateral ties

The impending visit of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Guyana later this year will be a trademark in further solidifying the bi-lateral relationship between the two countries.
This is according to Indian High Commissioner Venkatachalam Mahalingam, who at a press conference on Friday said while Guyana and India already enjoy strong relations, 2018 thus far has been good for bi-laterals.
This, he added, will be further strengthened during the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The announcement of Prime Minister Modi’s visit was made last week during President David Granger’s visit for the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Founding Conference and Solar Summit held in New Delhi, India.
According to a missive from the Ministry of the Presidency, the two leaders had a bi-lateral meeting during which Prime Minister Modi pledged to strengthen the historical ties between Guyana and India through cooperation. The Indian leader also said it was indicated that his country is willing to do whatever it can to support Guyana’s development. During the meeting, the two leaders reviewed the scale of Guyana-India relations and agreed to continue discussions when Prime Minister Modi visits Guyana later this year.
According to High Commissioner Mahalingam on Thursday, that high-level visit will take place sometime in November or December. He noted that the visit will be one that will cover overall bi-lateral relations between India and Guyana.
“…there will be a political element, it will have a commercial element, a cultural element and it will have the other elements such as consulate, you know like visa-free agreement, etc. So it will encompass all the areas which are basically looked after by the High Commission here,” Mahalingam said.
The Indian diplomat went on to say, however, the visit will be a furtherance to ongoing discussions on Guyana’s emerging oil and gas sector as well as it’s heavily indebted and cash strap sugar industry.
“By that time, I think there will be some clarity about what kind of cooperation we are going to have on sugar. Like how Government of India can help the ailing sugar industry of Guyana, for which we expect some kind of detailed request from the Government of Guyana. And with Guyana being the new member of the oil club… there was an assurance that India can help in downstream, midstream and upstream; and it is for the Government of Guyana to come back to us in which area Guyana would like to have cooperation with India,” the High Commissioner posited.
He went onto say that there will also be other areas of interests to further develop between the two countries. These include: agriculture, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, IT cooperation and education.
“So these are general areas but of course there could be new areas (of cooperation during or prior to Prime Minister Modi’s visit),” the High Commissioner said.
President Granger’s visit to India earlier this month follows closely on a visit to India, back in February by a delegation led by Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge during which Guyana and India signed three cooperation agreements – one on renewable energy, one on cultural exchange and the framework agreement on ISA.
Guyana and India established diplomatic ties in 1965 and have since maintained a strong bond on the bi-lateral and multi-lateral fronts given the similarities of not only its democracy and colonial background, but also its multi-racial and multi-cultural societies.
Over the years, Guyana has become the beneficiary of several loans and lines of credit from the Indian Government towards infrastructure, healthcare and education development.
Currently, there are seven projects that the Indian Government is either fully or partially funding in Guyana.