EU Ambassador, Min Sukhai, discuss support to improve lives of Indigenous people
─ pledge to establish a stronger relationship
Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Hon. Pauline Sukhai, on Friday morning, received a courtesy call from Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the European Union to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, H.E. Fernando Ponz Cantó.
The meeting which was held in the Ministry’s boardroom saw the Minister and the Ambassador committing to establishing stronger ties towards the enhancement of the lives of Guyana’s Indigenous Peoples, through the Ministry’s various programmes and projects.
“We did speak about the priorities that the Ministry is going to embark in the coming months and in the term, we have to work. We spoke about addressing and concluding the land matters, areas of support for youth development, economic activities and of course examining programmes for women. As well as building capacity is in the competency of the indigenous population,” Minister Sukhai told DPI.
Ambassador Canto congratulated Minister Sukhai on her appointment as Minister of Amerindian Affairs.
He noted that the EU has been actively supporting Guyana since 1975 and will be looking at ways to “to transcend the partnership across the board.” This he said also includes Indigenous rights
“The European Union (EU) is strongly in favour of equal rights for everyone and is also in favour of Indigenous People in a holistic way which means covering everything from economic prosperity to equality to health to education so we are looking forward to working very closely and we are already supporting several civil society projects and programmes and we hope to do more in the future,” he said.
Guyana and the EU established diplomatic relations in 1975 which is premised on the common principles of equality, mutual respect, the rule-of-law, and tolerance.