President Granger to meet with President Bouterse in Suriname -continental, CARICOM, bilateral talks on agenda

 

 

Georgetown, Guyana – (June 30, 2016) President David Granger will, tomorrow, travel to Paramaribo, Suriname to meet with that country’s Head of State, President Desi Bouterse. The brief meeting is expected to see discussions on continental, regional and bilateral issues, which are relevant to both countries. The President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Carl Greenidge will depart tomorrow and will return the same day.

 

In an invited comment, President Granger said that the meeting is a brief encounter between the only two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries and will focus on bilateral and regional relations.

 

“We will be having discussions on issues at three levels; one is the fact that Guyana and Suriname are both members of the [Union of South American States] (UNASUR) so we are looking at it from that perspective. Secondly, we are looking at our relations from a CARICOM perspective because both of us are members of CARICOM and third, we are looking at relations at a bilateral level. So it is a brief meeting but we want to cover some ground at those levels before the CARICOM Heads of Government Summit,” President Granger said.

 

The Guyana/Suriname Border issue is also expected to be on the agenda. The Head of State noted that he expects that the meeting will see some modalities being established so that the two countries can move forward.

 

Guyana and Suriname have shared bilateral ties since the Dutch territory became independent in November 1975.