“Guyana has been a very strong partner of the United States” – US Secretary of State

United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken has described Guyana as a “very strong partner” to his country.

The Secretary of State made the statement Monday, when leaders of the two countries met in Washington to commence discussions on a range of issues to further deepen bilateral relations.

“Guyana has been a very strong partner for the United States and also in many ways, a global leader,” Secretary of State Blinken stated.

His Excellency, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali is leading the delegation from Guyana which includes Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo; Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd and Foreign Secretary, Robert Persaud.

The Secretary of State said the two nations are actively working to find solutions in the areas of climate change, food security and energy security. He said discussions surrounding those areas have since heightened following the recent Summit of the Americas.

He congratulated Guyana for maintaining its 85 per cent forest coverage, the second highest percentage of forest cover on earth. Guyana’s forest also stores 19.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

“It is a remarkable contributor in that way alone to the challenges we face with climate change, but the United States is eager to continue to deepen and strengthen the partnership that we have on all of these issues and more,” Secretary of State, Blinken.

President Ali said he is pleased to be engaged with the United States at a very important time of Guyana’s development as the country seeks to strengthen its relationship with the US.

Dr. Ali said Guyana views the United States as an important strategic partner and looks forward to working to resolve critical issues that affect CARICOM. These include food security, energy security, financing and the issue of climate change.

“In all these areas, Guyana is already providing leadership and we are committing ourselves to continue to provide that leadership. We are pursuing an energy path that seeks to balance our new found natural resource of oil and gas, but we are not doing that on the detriment of our credentials on the environment and climate change,” he said.

President Ali reminded that Guyana is a net zero carbon emitter. Guyana is also developing is Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030 which seeks to further guide the country in the fight against climate change.

“We look forward to discussing how jointly we can continue to work on the issues of food security, climate financing, working on the regions in terms of debt crisis facing CARICOM but more importantly, finding a balanced development strategy and in doing so, staying true to the value system and principles that both of us believe so strongly in, that is a democratic society where transparency and accountability and strong governance to support the development of Guyana,” President Ali stated.

President Ali and his delegation were invited by the US Government to meet with high-ranking US government officials, including the Secretary of State and leaders of Congress and the Senate.