Guyana President Irfaan Ali has lauded India for its “leadership” amid the covid pandemic, as the nation provided vaccines to the world. 

Under India’s Vaccine Maitri initiative, Covid vaccines were sent to more than 100 countries including Guyana. Speaking to WION’s diplomatic correspondent Sidhant Sibal, President Ali said, “During the pandemic, we saw that most countries opted for more inward-looking policies…India demonstrated full commitment to multilateralism when facing the same challenge, they extended their support to the world through vaccines.”

The president of Guyana, who has an Indian origin, was on a visit to India last week during which he toured six Indian cities. 

His trip to India began in Indore where he attended the 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention and received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award. 

Calling India a “motherland”, the president said, “India’s voice, as chair of the G20, must be one that calls for re-ordering of priorities and ensures climate, food and social justice.” India is the chair of the G20 and will be hosting the summit in September.

The president also spoke on defence co-operation with India, energy exports and the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on his country. 

“There is tremendous opportunity ahead and Guyana intends to work closely with India as a strong and strategic bilateral partner in pursuing the ambitions of both countries, to create a more peaceful world,” the president said.

“Guyana is working with India in championing many issues. We are part of the solar alliance, we are working with India on many renewable projects, and we are working with India on energy and food security. By supporting the commonality of the objectives, to create better work, we are actually supporting the vision of PM Modi, especially when he leads the G20,” he added.

“India is leading the G20, as we speak today. India is also one of the fastest-growing economies. India is projected to be the third-largest economy by 2030. India has been leading in the area of technology, food production, and human resource for some time now,” the president said, emphasising how PM Modi’s objective of creating one policy which includes all of India’s development aspirations, is similar to what government of Guyana has been seeking.

“During the pandemic, we saw most countries opt for more inward-looking policies, isolating themselves and protecting themselves first. India demonstrated full commitment to multilateralism when facing the same challenge, as they extended their support to the world through vaccines. India has demonstrated that it is ready and willing to provide better leadership in the world,” he said.

“India is our motherland..,” the president said. 

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Voice of the global south summit

“Global south summit is coming at an important time. What we have to do is find a commonality of strategy in addressing important questions. The developing world is faced with increased burden of the climate crisis, food security, energy security amid high cost of energy globally, imported inflation, supply chain crisis and this is dismantling the economies of many developing countries,” he said. 

“Focus of discussion on the oil and gas sector is to find synergy. To see how we can advance a govt-to-govt model that will create a win-win position. We have agreed to set up two technical teams and those teams will examine all the possibilities in the sale of crude, direct investment in exploration, and govt to govt collaboration in exploration and operation. The technical team will go to work immediately and will submit the report which will help determine options for a balanced framework,” President Irfaan Ali. 

“We are in a process of modernising our military. We are examining all possibilities that are available to us in hardware and military supply from India. More importantly, we have already embarked on closer and elaborate co-operation, military to military co-operation with India. We have a number of our officers being trained in India now,” he said.

Guyana’s economic progress

“Guyana is blessed with many natural resources because of which we have access to a market of 200 million people. We are building an economy that stands on different pillars and a wide array of opportunities,” he added.

Support for India’s bid at UNSC

“We have already communicated to India, officially, Guyana has no objection in supporting India,” the president reiterated. 

“We live in a world in which climate change is leading to a disastrous impact. We need to find money to build our defences and build dykes, who is going to find that capital for us. The problem we face with debt issue is lack of cheap capital,” the president said. 

West’s Climate Change commitments

“(Failed) Totally, not accidentally, but totally. What we have seen is that many of the loans are not concessional. Even new loans for adaptation and mitigation. So how are you supporting small island developing states,” he quizzed.