Guyana’s Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo meets the President of India
The major scope for partnership between India and Guyana in development was underlined at a key meeting in India’s capital.
President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu said that the development partnership is a major pillar of India-Guyana relations as she welcomed Guyana’s Vice President, who called on her at Rashtrapati Bhavan in February this year (2023).
“This visit of Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo will further deepen historical bonds of friendship between the two countries.”
“The President observed that trade between India and Guyana is on an upward trajectory. In 2021-22, despite the pandemic the bilateral trade witnessed a growth of over 300 percent.”
While stressing on the need to further diversify bilateral trade, President Murmu said India’s relations with Guyana is warm cordial and both countries enjoy a high-level understanding through periodic joint commissions, Foreign Office consultations, cultural exchange events and ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation) programmes.
“More than 640 Guyanese government officials have been trained under India’s ITEC programme so far,” she said.
Paying tributes to the historical ties between India and Guyana, President Murmu said, “Guyana has been a homeland to Indian brothers and sisters for the last 180 years. “Even though India and Guyana are separated geographically by a large distance, both have many aspects in common, such as a colonial past, predominantly agricultural and rural based economies, and multicultural societies.”
Vice-President Jagdeo met his Indian counterpart Jagdeep Dhankhar and both leaders reiterated their countries’ commitment to continue strengthening the bilateral partnership in various sectors including petroleum and natural gas, agriculture, agro-processing, education and healthcare, according to an official statement.
The hailed the close and cordial relations shared by India and Guyana based on strong people-to-people ties, economic links and common approach to multilateral issues.
Though India and Guyana are geographically apart, the two nations share a common colonial past, and an economy that is predominantly agricultural, and nurture multicultural societies. Of late, Indian companies have shown increased interest in mining and forestry. A number of them have acquired agricultural land for cultivation of maize, pulses, vegetables, fruits etc. Some have invested in the field of education and health services.